Third-quarter estimates from IDC regarding the smartphone market are now out, and they show that Google's (GOOG +3.51%) Android operating system now ships on a whopping three-quarters of all smartphones sold in the world. That's a phenomenal figure for a mobile operating system platform that's only four years young. Its next closest competitor was Apple (AAPL 0.70%) with "just" a 15% market share -- a fifth of Big G's. Research In Motion (RIMM +1.55%) saw its market share fall below 5%, as it awaits the launch of BlackBerry 10 next year. Microsoft (MSFT +2.42%) is also transitioning to its new Windows Phone 8 platform, banking on hardware partners like Samsung, Nokia (NOK 0.34%), and HTC to boost its share. Still, with 90% of devices now running either iOS or Android, there's not a lot left for the rest of the players.
