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Forecast: Android on Half of All Smartphones by End of Year!

Forecast: Android on Half of All Smartphones by End of Year!

By Anne Riker
April 08, 2011

Gartner Foresees Android, Android, Android in Our Future

Technology research firm Gartner is forecasting major growth for Android smartphones in a report released yesterday. Android software is projected to be the most popular operating system (OS) by the end if 2011, operating almost half of all smartphones worldwide.

Gartner said market shares would reach 38.5 percent by that time and they will continue increasing to 49.2 percent next year and leveling out at 48.8 percent by 2015. Gartner also said that smartphone sales worldwide would hit 468 million this year which is up 57.7 percent from last year. Sales are projected to reach 630 million in 2012 and a whopping 1.1 billion by 2015.

Gartner’s View on Future Market Share: Other OS

2011

  • Android — 38.5 percent
  • Apple iPhone- 19.4 percent
  • Nokia Symbian- 19.2 percent
  • Blackberry RIM- 13.4 percent
  • Microsoft Windows- 5.6 percent
  • Others- 3.9 percent

2012

  • Android — 49.2 percent
  • Apple iPhone- 18.9 percent
  • Nokia Symbian- 5.2 percent
  • Blackberry RIM- 12.6 percent
  • Microsoft Windows- 10.8
  • Others- 3.4 percent

2015

  • Android — 48.8 percent
  • Apple iPhone- 17.2 percent
  • Nokia Symbian- 0.1 percent
  • Blackberry RIM- 11.1 percent
  • Microsoft Windows- 19.5 percent
  • Others- 3.3 percent

Android Grows, iPhone Holds, Symbian’s Gone, WinPhone Gets a Bone

In summary, Android shows marked growth which holds strong through 2015. iPhone remains steady with only a slight decline. Symbian’s OS will reportedly be replaced with Microsoft’s platform. There were no results reported for Blackberry.

What does this mean for you as a consumer? More affordable smartphones. Ms. Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner had this to say:

“As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers”, Ms. Cozza said. “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.”

Ms. Cozza also said:

“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.”

View the full report here.