Even though Symbian is expected to remain in the top position among software platforms, Nokia, the number-one phone maker in the world and a Symbian user, continues to struggle to hang onto its market share. Nokia's delay in introducing touch-screen products led to poor smartphone sales, Gartner said. Unit sales for Nokia were down in the fourth quarter, giving it a 38 percent market share, compared to 40 percent in the same period a year earlier.

Samsung, which quickly rolled out touch-screen devices, fared better. In the fourth quarter, it boosted its market share to 18 percent, up from 13 percent in the corresponding period in 2007.

LG also did well, moving into third place, while struggling Sony Ericsson and Motorola both slipped in their rankings, according to Gartner.

The iPhone didn't sell enough phones to make it into Gartner's top five and so is included with other phone makers in a category that comprises 20 percent of the market.

Yet iPhone users continue to generate the most mobile Web usage. New from Net Applications found that iPhone users make up two-thirds of the mobile browsing market. Phones using Java ME to browse make up 9 percent of the market, followed by Windows Mobile users with 7 percent. Despite its relatively recent market entrance, Android users are responsible for 6.3 percent of mobile browsing, just beating Symbian phones, with their massive user base. Symbian phones generated 6.2 percent of the mobile browsing market, according to Net Applications.