In an clear indication that rapid changes are sweeping through the mobile arena, a study released by research firm Canalys on Monday revealed that Google's Android operating system beat Nokia's Symbian OS as the world's most widely used smartphone OS during the 2010 fourth quarter.

According to the statistics shared by the Canalys study, the fourth-quarter shipments of Android-based handsets increased nearly seven times year-on-year to 33 million worldwide, thanks largely to the strong sales from handset manufacturers like the South Korea-based Samsung Electronics and the Taiwan-based HTC Corp.

Due to the mentioned surge in shipments, Android OS leaped a 33 percent share of the worldwide smartphone platform market in the fourth quarter; beating both Symbian and Apple iPhone OS, which respectively had a 31percent and 16 percent share.

The Canalys study also found that in the US too, Android was also the leading mobile platform during the fourth quarter, surpassing Apple's iOS and the Research In Motion (RIM)'s Blackberry platform.

Noting that the US landscape will shift "dramatically" in 2011, largely because of the Verizon-Apple deal for the iPhone, Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd said: "Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung."