“Android adoption is about to explode,” declared Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt during the company’s Q3 earnings call yesterday. While Schmidt may be biased, a new smartphone forecast from Gartner yesterday also projects aggressive growth for the mobile operating system.

Gartner said Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android is expected to exceed iPhone shipments by 2012, and be the second-largest smartphone operating system after Symbian, reports ComputerWorld. Gartner is now predicting that Android will make up 18 percent of all smartphones sold globally in 2012, representing about 94 million users out of 525 million. Interestingly, the analyst firm predicts that Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform and Apple’s iPhone will be more of a niche play, by ranking BlackBerry third and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) fourth. Gartner says Blackberry will make up about 13.9 percent of all smartphones, or about 73 million units and the iPhone OS will be on 13.6 percent of smartphones, with 71.5 million units sold.

Google said they believe Android will take off because all the “necessary conditions” are set for growth, reports TechCrunch. There are now 12 Android phones currently in the market across 32 carriers in 26 countries.