IDC's Long Term Forecast - iOS To Lose Market Share, Android & Windows Phone To Gain
by Joe White
June 10, 2011
IDC has recently released a new long term forecast for the worldwide smart phone market, in which the group sees the iOS' market share decrease by 2015.
Apple's mobile operating system currently holds an 18.20 percent share of the smart phone market. This places the iOS behind Android (with 38.90 percent) and Symbian (20.60 percent).
However, despite the yearly release of a new iPhone, ICD expects the iOS' smart phone market share to decrease by 2015 (to 16.90 percent), and Android's share of the smart phone market to increase (to 43.80 percent).
The long term forecast also expects Windows Phone to grow in popularity. Currently, Microsoft's mobile operating system has 3.80 percent of the smart phone market share. ICD expects this figure to increase to 20.30 percent by 2015.
In smart phone terms, Apple's mobile operating system runs on the iPhone only (obviously, the study ignores the iPad and iPod touch). However, Android and Windows Phone have the advantage of running on many third-party manufactured handsets. Despite the obvious (and much discussed) issue of "fragmentation," this has resulted in Android OS gaining a larger chunk of the smart phone market share in recent years - simply because it is present on more smart phones.
We'll keep you posted on the status of the smart phone market. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
[via Electronista]
