If you read the US trade press you would be excused for thinking that the only smartphone in the world is Apple's iPhone. However it turns out that the buying public are ignoring the hype and do not like the smell of Jobs' Mob's walled garden and are opting for something more open saucy.

Sales of smartphones running Google's Android mobile operating system surged past those of Apple in the US for the first time in the first quarter of the year, according to industry research firm NPD.

Android-powered smartphones accounted for 28 per cent of US consumer sales in the first three months of the year compared with 21 per cent for the iPhone.
Rim's BlackBerry, retained the top spot with 36 per cent of US smartphone sales in the quarter, NPD said.

Apparently the reason for the surge was Motorola's Android-powered Droid and HTC's Android-based Droid Eris were cited as among the reasons for Android's surge past Apple.