"This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success," he added.

During the period, Android shipments showed the greatest growth, to 89.9 million units from 36.7 million in 2011, a 145 percent increase. Almost half those shipments (45.4 percent) were smartphones made by .

Apple iPhone shipments climbed 88.7 percent during the quarter, to 35.1 million from 18.6 million in 2011.

Android and iOS gains during the period were largely at the expense of Symbian and Blackberry smartphones. Symbian's shipments dropped 60.6 percent and Blackberry's slipped 29.7 percent.

While Microsoft's share of the market remains small, shipments of smartphones based on its operating systems climbed 33 percent, to 3.3 million from 2.6 million in 2011.