2011 was definitely the year of the smartphone. It was the year when the touch-screen took a firm grip on the cell-phone market and began to dominate sales; it was also a year that saw Android creep up on Apple in terms of sales. Apple’s iPhone has always been the number one smartphone on the market but recent months have seen the company’s dominance begin to falter and fall victim to the Google led juggernaut.

Two reports released recently by comScore Inc entitled “2012 Mobile Future in Focus” and a study by Kantar World Panel has shed some light on the smartphone market, not only in the US but around the world. In the US, 47.3% of the smartphone market belongs to Android with Apple iOS taking a 30% share. The story is a similar one across the Atlantic in the UK, although Android is not as dominant with a 36.9% share compared to Apple’s 28.5%.

Google expect that by dominating the market in terms of sales will bring them app makers aplenty which in turn will bring more app users to Android. However, a report in Bloomberg Business Week by mobile analyst company Flurry has shown this not to be the case with many app developers struggling to be won over by Android. According to the study, developers are currently creating three iOS apps for everyone on Android, a change from this time in 2011 when the ratio was three-to-two. The reason for the lack of app development on Android seems to be because of the sheer number of different phones running Google’s OS. Developers are finding that creating apps to work with numerous different devices and screen sizes is a time-consuming effort and one that cannot match the simplicity of Apple’s two screen sizes.

With the forthcoming release of the iPhone 5 and current dominance in the app market, Apple will be hoping to regain their spot as smartphone king.