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If you think just because iPhone is still every where it tops the sales chart – think again.

For the first time since its launch, Android-based smart phones outsold the iPhone in the U.S. in the first quarter  of 2010.  Android  continues to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market, it moved past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to NPD , a  market research company. NPD’s wireless market research concludes that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind Blackberry’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).

Corporate smart phone sales numbers are not included ,the data is obtained from monthly consumer surveys. Obviously,  Android’s momentum is picking up, helped along by sales by carrier partners such as Verizon, which offers some smart phones for free with the purchase of another smart phone.

The fact that all the carriers offer Android phones also means that sales should always be pretty robust compared with the iPhone OS, which is still an exclusive on AT&T in the United States.