Market research firm Gartner, Inc. is reporting that worldwide smartphone sales are up year-over-year for the first quarter of 2016, and Android devices make up an increasing majority of those sales.

The firm pegs Android as accounting for roughly 84.1 percent of all smartphones sold worldwide during the period, which vastly outstrips the 14.8 percent running Apple's iOS (see image embedded below.) 

That's up from the 78.8 to 17.9 Android/iOS split in the same period a year prior, and continues a long-running trend of Android outpacing iOS in terms of users -- even as iOS trumps Android in terms of app store revenues.

"Despite the Android platform’s advancements and its dominant market share, the challenges of profitability remain for a number of Android players," stated Gartner research director Roberta Cozza in a press release outlining some findings from the firms' recent mobile market share report. 

He was speaking specifically about Android hardware, and alluded to new opportunities for the OS beyond smartphones. "This will have an impact on the vendor landscape where new or more innovative business models will increasingly become key to succeed."

You can find more data culled from the firm's market research, as well as a link to look at the full [paid] report, over on Gartner's press page.