It’s hard to fathom now, but there was a time when Google’s open mobile operating system seemed destined to fail. Android was really slow out of the gate. Few users and fewer handset manufacturers were adopting it, and after several months, the OS seemed dead in the water.

Now look at where we are. Mobile analyst group Canalys is reporting today that, in the fourth quarter of last year, Android became the top smartphone platform. Shipments for the OS hit 32.9 million in the quarter, beating out 31.0 million worldwide shipments for the Symbian platform.

Apple and RIM were in a distant third and fourth, respectively, at 16.2 and 14.6 million shipments repectively. Microsoft, meanwhile, rounded out the top five at 3.1 million handsets shipped globally.

Despite Symbian’s slipping marketshare, Nokia is still the top smartphone vendor, with 28 percent of the total market.