For those of you who thought Android would never compete with the iPhone, get a load of this: A new report from eMarketer shows that Android will topple the iPhone in market share by the end of 2012.

Sure, you can find the Android operating system on what seems like a bazillion smartphones, with many more promised in 2011. But it would still be quite an achievement for an OS, that at the end of next year, will be just four years removed from its debut on a handset. The Android has faced a serious uphill battle against the iPhone, which, as eMarketer puts it, captured the hearts and minds of many tech-savvy early smartphone adopters with its sleek design, multitouch interface and available apps.”

eMarketer predicts that Android will have a 31 percent U.S. market share in December 2012 compared to the iPhones 30 percent. Android currently holds 24 percent of market share, with iPhone at 28 percent, according to the researchers statistics. Both trail BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, which sits at 30 percent. But eMarketer predicts BlackBerry share will continue to dive and fall into third place by the end of 2012, at 23 percent.

With a growing roster of manufacturer and carrier partners in every major market and market segment, scale for Android is coming quickly in terms of device, market share, apps and ad revenues,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst.

The Android platform has outsold the iPhone and BlackBerry in the U.S. for much of the past year.