Sales of HTC’s One and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will further boost Android’s share of the mobile OS market, and “pile pressure on Apple, BlackBerry and Nokia to keep their products front of consumers’ minds,” according to research-firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

It is Samsung, however, that continues to be Android’s engine of growth.

In a breakdown of top ten smartphone models in Great Britain during Q1 2013, for example, Kantar finds that the South Korean manufacturer accounted for five of them.

“One of the key drivers of Samsung’s performance is how targeted each device is,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar. “The Galaxy Note II is popular with affluent 25-34 year old males, the Galaxy SIII Mini appeals to younger females, the Galaxy Ace to older females, while the Galaxy SIII has broad appeal.”

Sunnebo emphasised that the wide variety of devices is not indicative of a scatter gun approach, but “simply a realisation that different consumers demand very different handsets, both in functionality, design and price”.

The most popular smartphone in Great Britain during Q1 2013, nevertheless, was Apple’s iPhone 5, claiming a 15 per cent share of sales. Apple’s iPhone 4S came in third position (7.5 per cent), with Samsung Galaxy SIII wedged between the two in second spot with 11.4 per cent.

As a sign of Samsung’s and Apple’s dominance, the LG Google Nexus 4 and BlackBerry Curve 9320 are the only other individual brand models featuring in Great Britain’s top ten, occupying seventh and tenth positions respectively.

Kantar’s mobile OS market share estimates in Q1 2013 for EU5 (Germany, GB, France, Italy and Spain), US, China, Australia and Japan finds that – apart from the US and Japan – Android is the clear market leader.

In Spain, Android’s market share reached as high as 93.5 per cent with Apple’s iOS trailing with a meagre 3.2 per cent. The EU5 average has Android with a 68.8 per cent slice of the market compared with iOS’ 19.4 per cent.

In the US, the race between the two mobile OS, in terms of market sales, is relatively tight. Android held a 49.3 per cent market share during Q1 2013 compared with iOS’ 43.7 per cent.

Of the markets covered by Kantar, iOS claims number one spot only in Japan (49.2 per cent), where Android is on 45.8 per cent.