Android to overtake iPhone in 2012 - analyst
Symbian still on top, but BlackBerry down
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Google’s Android will have more than quadrupled its market share by the end of 2012, market watcher Gartner has claimed. But Symbian looks set to remain the dominant smartphone OS for several years to come.
Android’s market share stood at a paltry 1.6 per cent during Q1 2009, but will grow to 14.5 per cent by the time Q4 2012 rolls around, Gartner forecast, based on an estimated 522m smartphones shipping worldwide during the period.
As a result, Android will move from its current position as the sixth most popular operating system for smartphones to become the second most popular, Gartner said.
The main reason for Android’s market share growth will, Gartner VP Ken Dulaney told website AppleInsider, be because “unlike Apple, they [Google] license their OS to multiple OEMs”.
Dulaney said many handset makers are betting their futures on Android, while Apple is just one company.
Speaking of Apple, its share of the smartphone OS market will also grow - but only from 10.8 per cent to 13.7 per cent, Gartner said.
Symbian will remain the most popular OS. However, its market share will drop from 49.3 per cent during Q1 2009 to 39 per cent by Q4 2012.
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS is currently the second most popular handset OS, Gartner said, with a Q1 2009 market share of 19.9 per cent. But it will slip to fifth place by Q4 2012 with market share of just 12.5 per cent.
Windows Mobile's share will grow from 10.3 per cent to 12.8 per cent during the same quarters, Gartner added, which will see it remain as the fourth most popular phone-based OS. ®
COMMENTS
It's amazing how quickly..
The comments turn from a discussion of the article to a fanboi slanging match about phones..
Clearly Gartner has been paid a shed load of money by someone to pluck some figures out the air. How can anyone predict any market this accurately three years down the line?
Windows Mobile
I'm not sure you could call Windows Mobile 'popular' ... ok, so my Xperia/X1 runs WM at the moment, but that's only because there isnt currently an Android rom out for it ... you can bet as soon as they start releasing the X2 Android roms that someone will hack them into running on the X1 and I can finally cease contributing to the 'popularity' of WM6 :s
Lol!
Look at all the apple sympathisers defending their poor choice of phones!
Windows Mobile unfortunatly is dead. At least until 8 comes out.
HTC have made a good stab of making the latest 6.5 useable, although the previous WM incarnations weren't that bad either. Depends what you want to do with the phone, Productivity or Pose.
I've left my WM ways behind for now, as the OS feels a little dated on modern hardware. I've jumped to Android, and I can say it's the best OS i've ever used on a phone.
iPhones are like your typical model, pretty but not much up top.
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