Android – yes you hear it everywhere now, since its introduction in 2008, the Google Android Operating System has made its way to the top. Rightfully so as, Gartner reports that by the end of next year in 2012, almost half of the smartphones in the market will run on Android OS.
The smartphone market will grow from 468,000 units in 2011 to 630,000 in 2012, and half of these devices will run Android. So what happened to Apple’s Iphone? Actually Apple’s market share should remain stable, at around 20% of the smartphone market. But newcomer or new partners Nokia – Windows will probably boost the Windows Phone market share and at the same time decrease the Symbian shares as it becomes obsolete. Gartner predicts that it will come to second place by 2015.
Part of the success from Google’s Android OS can be attributed to its free Android OS that any manufacturer can use on its own device. This helped manufacturers cut software development cost and focus more on the device itself. And lets not forget that Android devices are available from many different manufacturers, helping the widespread of Android handsets. Android gains will also come from mid to low end handsets which will become more affordable to the general public as smartphones prices should become closer to 300$.
So according to Gartner and previous IDC report, Android will dominate the market by 2015, followed by Windows mobile, Iphone iOS and RIM Blackberry.
2015, that’s a bit far, but hey why not, at least both reports are on the same page.
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