More than 75 percent of the handsets T-Mobile sells are smartphones, the carrier told a gathering at this week’s Mobilize 2011 forum held in San Francisco. What’s more, 90 percent of those smartphones are powered by the Android operating system.

Android had 43.4 percent of the smartphone market, Gartner announced in August. Google’s mobile operating system has seen a dramatic rise in prominence from a year earlier, when Android powered just 17.2 percent of smartphones. Smartphones, with their ecosystems of apps and data-hungry users, are seen as a lifeline thrown to carriers hurting from the decline of voice calls.

T-Mobile’s Chief Technical Officer, Cole Brodman, also told the audience the carrier would “love to have the iPhone,” but “the ball is in Apple’s court.” His comments come just a week after announcing the carrier won’t be getting the iPhone 5, expected to be released in early October, this year. Many consumers assumed following AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile, the carrier would by default soon offer the Apple handset.