Windows Phone to Become Second OS in 2015, IDC Reaffirms

Windows Phone, the new mobile operating system that Microsoft launched on devices in October last year, is expected to become the second platform on the smartphone market in 2015, a recent report from IDC reiterates.

The research firm already said that the platform is expected to become a leader on the market, and it seems that they remain truthful to this forecast.

Windows Phone will gain only a small portion of the market in 2011, as there will be only a few handsets running under it launched on the market.

However, things are expected to change starting with 2012, when Nokia's Windows Phone devices will start shipping in large volumes, the research firm notes.

The worldwide smartphone market is expected to increase significantly in the time frame as well, to over 982 million devices by the end of 2015.

Android is expected to be the leading mobile OS at that time, followed by Windows Phone on the second position, and iOS on the third. Google's platform is expected to become the number one platform before the end of 2011.

During this year alone, the smartphone market should increase 55 percent on a yearly basis, to a number of 472 million devices. Last year, vendors shipped only a number of around 305 million units worldwide.

The smartphone market should increase four time faster than the overall mobile phone market during the ongoing year, the research firm notes.

According to IDC, the fast growth will be fueled by lower selling prices, complemented by increased functionality of devices, and the availability of lower-cost data plans, all of these making the handsets more accessible to a wider range of users.

“The smartphone floodgates are open wide,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

“Mobile phone users around the world are turning in their 'talk-and-text' devices for smartphones as these devices allow users to perform daily tasks like shopping and banking from anywhere.

“The growth trend is particularly pronounced in emerging markets where adoption is still in its early days. As a result, the growth in regions such as Asia/Pacific and Latin America, will be dramatic over the coming years.”