The smartphone market seems to be experiencing a major growth while bathing in stiff competition between mobile platforms due to the increasing number of handsets being launched each month. Gartner recently released a study which reveals that Google’s Android OS will feature in over 49 percent of smartphones by the end of 2012. It also states that approximately 468 million smartphone units will be sold this year, a 57.7 percent increase when pitted against 2010 records.
The latest report asserts that Apple will retain its position as the second largest platform through 2014 and is likely to maintain 19.4 percent of total market share in 2011. These projections predict a notably low 19.2 percent share for Nokia’s Symbian OS which is down from 37.6 percent in 2010. Gartner expects Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 to capture at least 5.6 percent of market share during this year.
“By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized,” stated Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner. “As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers. Android’s position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”
According to the study, RIM’s popularity is envisaged to take a slight hit courtesy of heightened competition in consumer markets. RIM will apparently be able to garner around 13.4 percent of the market share this year. Google’s Android platform is touted to intensify the 22.7 percent market share it enjoyed in 2010 to 38.5 percent in 2011.
Mobile phone masses the world over will have to wait and see whether the current leading platforms manage to retain their positions as the year progresses.