Research firm Gartner is reporting that global cell phone sales for the second quarter of 2010 totaled 325.6 million units, an increase of 13.8 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2009. Smart phones accounted for 19 percent of phones shipped, which is a 50.5 percent increase over last year, according to the company. Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC has been growing its market share steadily for some time now, thanks to strong consumer interest in smart phones, something the company specializes in. Today, Gartner released its numbers for worldwide mobile device sales for Q2 2010 and, for the first time, HTC has made it into the top 10. Selling about 5.9 million units, HTC came in at number eight on Gartner's chart. This is more than double its Q2 2009 figures and gives the company a market share of 1.8 percent for Q2 2010. The research firm attributes this to the popularity of the Android platform and HTC's aggressive branding strategy. HTC took the eighth position for mobile devices sold in Q2 2010. (Credit: Gartner/highlight added by CNET Asia) This point is further backed up by numbers showing Google's mobile platform overtaking Apple's iOS to take third position for smart phone operating systems. An earlier report quoting research firm Nielsen's findings corroborates this rise in Android's market share.   Android overtook iOS to take third position for smart phone operating systems. (Credit: Gartner/highlight added by CNET Asia) However, HTC still has quite a bit of catching up to do as Apple, which took the next higher spot at number seven, sold a lot more iPhones--about 8.7 million during the same period. The usual suspects took the top spots with Nokia at number one, commanding 34.2 percent of total sales. Korean giants Samsung and LG took the number two and three positions, respectively.