Android to Lead the Mobile Market in 2011 with 38.5% Share, Says Gartner

Google's Android operating system is expected to become the leading mobile operating system during the ongoing year, accounting for no less than 38.5 percent of all smartphones on the market in 2011, up from only 22.7 percent it enjoyed last year, a recent report from Gartner shows.

According to the research firm, the smartphone market is expected to increase by 57.7 percent when compared to the last year, reaching 468 million units in 2011, and should grow even more in the following years.

Android is expected to continue its ascension, being set to account for 49.2 percent of the market next year, and for 48.8 percent of all smartphones on the market in 2015, the research firm shows.

The total number of handsets with open OSes on board would increase significantly in the time frame, accounting for 26 percent of all mobile phones in 2011, and reaching 47 percent of the total mobile device market ion 2015.

“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,” said 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.”

The research firm also notes that Apple’s iOS would remain on the second position on the market through 2014, but that it would lose that place to Microsoft's Windows phone mobile OS, which should account for 19.5 percent of the market in 2015 (up from only 5.6 percent in 2011).

According to Gartner, Apple will be focused on maintaining margins, and not on growing its market share through lowering price tags.

RIM is expected to lose market share due to the fact that it would face an increasingly competitive environment, though it would do come out with appealing devices due to the migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX.

The Microsoft – Nokia partnership would push Windows Phone to the third position on the market by 2013, and should bring it to the second place on the Smartphone market by 2015.

Gartner also notes that new device types will widen ecosystems. “The growth in sales of media tablets expected in 2011 and future years will widen the ecosystems that open OS communications devices have created. This will, by and large, function more as a driver than an inhibitor for sales of open OS devices,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.