As per a study from Strategy Analytics, the global shipment of Android-based smartphone will swell by 900 percent in 2009, making it the fastest growing smartphone OS.

“We forecast global Android smartphone shipments to grow an impressive 900 percent annually during 2009. The Android mobile operating system from Google gained early traction in the United States in the second half of 2008 and it is gradually spreading its presence into Europe and Asia during 2009,” said Tom Kang, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

The rapid adoption of Android OS can be credited to the healthy support from operators, vendors and developers.

Android has fast been winning healthy support among operators, vendors and developers. A relatively low-cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google’s support for cloud services have encouraged companies such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung, T Mobile, Vodafone and others to support the Android operating system,” said Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics.

Android at present stands in a comfortable position and will come up as a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years.

Playing a second fiddle to Android is the popular Apple iPhone Operating System, which is expected to grow at the rate of 79 percent in 2009.