By Damien Gayle PUBLISHED: 11:48 EST, 16 November 2012 | UPDATED: 11:48 EST, 16 November 2012 Almost three out of four of the world's smartphones are now running the Android mobile operating system, a report has revealed. Google's mobile OS now has a 72.4 per cent share of the market for mobile operating systems, a massive increase from the 52.5 per cent it held a year ago. Samsung's wildly popular smartphones accounted for a big portion of that gain, with the South Korean tech giant shipping 55million units, the majority of which run on Android. Models display Samsung Electronics' newest smartphone Galaxy S III in Seoul, South Korea: New research shows the Android OS, which the SIII uses, now holds nearly three-quarters of the market
@highlight
Android holds 72.4 per cent share of world's mobile OS market, up from the 52.5 per cent share it held a year ago
@highlight
Apple's iOS slips from 15 per cent market share to 13.9 per cent as users hold off upgrading as they waited for the release of the iPhone 5
Apple
@placeholder, meanwhile, whose devices run on its own proprietary iOS software, sold around 23.5million phones over the same period, the third quarter of 2012.
iOS
Apple, meanwhile, whose devices run on its own proprietary @placeholder software, sold around 23.5million phones over the same period, the third quarter of 2012.