The results are in. The leading mobile OS for 2011 was... Symbian!

With Android activations going through the roof and the iPhone 4S selling by the bucketload, if you asked us to pick which OS was the most popular in 2011, we'd surely choose Android or iOS.

If you suggested Symbian to us, however, we'd probably look at you and laugh. Well, the joke's on us.

According to figures collected by StatCounter, the largest share of the global mobile OS market in 2011 wasn't held by iOS, Android, Windows Phone, bada, or webOS.

No, it was Symbian.

Sales of Symbian devices are falling rapidly in Europe, while it was always a poor seller in the USA. After Nokia made it clear it intended to push Windows Phone as its main smartphone platform, most people had written the OS off.

But, 'we' aren't the whole world, and Symbian is still alive and kicking in many parts of the planet, such as emerging markets in Africa.

This was enough to see Symbian's global market share sit above iOS on 30 per cent at the beginning of 2011, rise to 33.58 per cent in June, and, following a slight drop in October, finish with a respectable 33.63 per cent by year end. Not bad for a 'dead' OS, eh.

Although this data doesn't really mean anything for the future success of Symbian devices here in the UK, it's food for thought for developers.

They need to consider that these new markets will be craving great apps and games, which in turn will be good news for anyone in Britain that still has a Symbian phone.