The very latest GfK Retail and Technology figures indicate two clear trends in handset preference for the European consumer; phones with an advanced Operating System (OS) and touchscreen technology. Europe has seen the market share of handsets sold with an advanced OS nearly double over the last 13 months, rising from 13.8% to 26.9%, GfK says. Across the region in September 2010, one in every five advanced OS handsets sold were Android OS, a significant increase from just one in twenty in March 2010. The UK leads the trend in the region, with advanced OS representing 43.4% of handsets.

In terms of phones with touchscreen technology, over one third of handsets sold in Europe were touchscreen in September 2010, up 21% compared to the same month a year ago. This compares to one in five in Asia and one in ten in the Middle East and Africa.

"The smartphone phenomenon is fuelling the growth we see in global mobile phone sales and in some countries half of the phones sold in October were smartphones," commented GfK's Global Telco Marketing Director, Aaron Rattue. "Together with the expected boom in media tablets , this will mean the battlegrounds of the mobile web and operating system will be even more competitive in 2011."