Google's mobile operating system continued to show its dominance among smartphones across major global markets including Latin America.

The latest smartphone data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech revealed Google's Android platform as the top mobile operating system in three major markets in Latin America.

"Android finished 2013 strongly, showing year-on-year share growth across 12 major global markets including Europe, U.S.A., Latin America, China and Japan," said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's Strategic Insight Director Dominic Sunnebo. "Apple has lost share in most countries compared with this time last year, but importantly it has held strong shares in key markets including 43.9 [percent] in U.S.A., 29.9 [percent] in Great Britain and 19.0 [percent] in China."

In regards to Microsoft's Windows Phone, its market share slipped in the important market of Latin America.

"[Windows Phone's] performance also deteriorated toward the end of 2013 in the important growth markets of China, U.S.A. and Latin America," added Sunnebo, after noting the Microsoft mobile operating system saw a minor gain in Europe of 3 percentage points.

Specifically, Android finished the latest three months ending in December 2013 in Latin America with 83.5 percent of the market share. The Latin American market by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech includes data from Argentina and Brazil. Android's market share came with a double-digit increase from the same three-month period in 2012. Android's market share grew by 21.9 percentage points from 2012.

Although Windows Phone slipped, the Microsoft platform narrowly finished ahead of Apple's iOS. Windows Phone finished the latest three months ending in December with 4.9 percent, which is a decrease of 1.8 percentage points from 2012. The positive for Windows Phone is the platform improved from third place to second place -- dethroning BlackBerry.

Similar to Windows Phone, iOS improved its rank courtesy of BlackBerry's decline. iOS finished third with 4.3 percent of the market share, which is a decline of 0.1 percentage points. iOS previously ranked fourth in the top three Latin American markets provided by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

BlackBerry encountered the worst market share percentage decline with a loss of 7.5 percentage points. BlackBerry finished December 2013 with 2.8 percent of the market share, which is down from the 10.3 percent it had accounted for in 2012. BlackBerry, as a result, finished fourth, down from 2012's second place.

According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the Latin American region has emerged as a "land full of opportunities with appealing markets and multiple possibilities for brands expansion."

"Kantar Worldpanel closely follows this pulse through its home consumer panel, which covers approximately 96 [percent] of GDP and 80 [percent] of population by having presence in 15 countries. That strong representative capacity is what makes it number one in the continent."

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO