Google's mobile operating system continued to grow during 2013 as the platform is expected to account for one billion mobile phones 2014.

According to Gartner, a leading information technology research and advisory company, Google's Android mobile operating system saw a 12-percentage point increase when comparing 2012's data to 2013. Android, as a result, finished 2013 with 78.4 percent of the 2013 operating system market share, which is an increase from the previous year's 66.4 percent. The Android platform was accounted for 758.7 million smartphones sold during 2013, a substantial increase from the 451.6 million smartphones in 2012.

Apple's iOS finished a distant second place while encountering a market share percentage loss in the process. While 62.8 percentage points behind Android, iOS accounted for 15.6 percent of the market share for 2013, which is a decrease from 19.1 percent during 2012. According to Gartner, the iOS platform accounted for 151 million smartphones sold during 2013, which -- despite the market share loss -- is an increase from the 130.1 million iPhones sold in 2012.

Microsoft's Windows Phone improved its rankings from 2012 to 2013. Windows Phone previously garnered 2.5 percent of the market share, which was enough for fourth place in 2012. For 2013, the Microsoft mobile operating system placed third with 3.2 percent of the market share. With the market share percentage increase, Microsoft also saw an increase in smartphone sales featuring the Windows Phone platform. Microsoft sold 30.8 million Windows Phone devices during 2013, which is almost double from the 16.9 million units sold during 2012.

Microsoft's gain was BlackBerry's loss.

BlackBerry previously held third place based on Gartner's 2012 data. BlackBerry's smartphone sales dropped by half, from 34.2 million units in 2012 to 18.6 million in 2013. As a result, BlackBerry's operating system market share dropped from 5 percent to 1.9 percent.

Gartner noted "Other" operating systems accounted for 0.9 percent of the market share, which is down from 6.9 percent for 2012.

Meanwhile, Gartner also disclosed smartphones, globally, accounted for 53.6 percent of the overall mobile phone sales during 2013. As a result, smartphones exceeded the annual sales of feature phones. Gartner noted the global sales of smartphones to end users peaked at 968 million units last year, which is an increase of 42.3 percentage points from 2012's figure of 680 million. It marked the first time smartphones outsold feature phones.

According to the research and advisory company, regions such as Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Pacific, and Eastern Europe have contributed to the strong sales of smartphones, which grew by 50 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013. Latin America, however, saw the "strongest" growth among the aforementioned regions.

Gartner projected smartphones with the Android operating system will account hit the billion units mark during 2014.

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