Google Inc.’s Android platform is the most popular smartphone software in the U.S., overtaking Apple Inc.’s iPhone and the BlackBerry from Research In Motion Ltd., according to Gartner Inc.

Worldwide, Android became the third-best-selling operating system in the second quarter, with 17.2 percent of sales compared with 1.8 percent a year earlier, the Stamford, Connecticut-based market researcher said in a note today. It trails Nokia Oyj’s Symbian and RIM, Gartner said.

The Android operating system has outpaced sales of Apple software in the U.S. and abroad this year because it’s available on a wider array of phones and carriers, analysts have said. The two operating systems are competing for share of smartphone sales, which gained 50.5 percent in the quarter. That’s more than three times the growth for the market as a whole.

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