We've been talking about the projected growth of Android for some time now, both and as an operating system for a of . One analyst predicts a in Android smartphone adoption over the coming months. Other pundits are calling for Android to by 2012, with 14 percent of the global smartphone market in its grasp.

The growth, while no overnight sensation, can already be observed. Fresh data from Gartner finds Android adoption reached 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009, pre-Droid -- up from zilch the year before. The biggest losers in year-to-year change: Symbian, which fell about 5 percent, and Windows Mobile, which saw a 3 percent drop. (I'm telling you, if they'd only have put into the , things might have been different.)

As the good folks at , the Motorola Droid may or may not be able to maintain its momentum once the initial excitement wears off and newer Android devices take over the spotlight. But in the grand picture, the Motorola Droid is only a tiny part of the equation. Its relative success signals the beginning of Android being a serious contender in the smartphone market -- and that's something bigger than any can convey.

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