An analyst at Pyramid Research believes Microsoft’s relatively nascent Windows Phone 7 platform will trounce Google’s wildly popular Android OS by 2013.
“While we acknowledge the momentum that Android is experiencing and will continue to experience in 2011 and 2012, we believe that Nokia and Microsoft are a very powerful tandem, and that will show in its full force by the end of 2013,” claimed senior Pyramid analyst Stela Bokun.
“Some of the main obstacles to the growth of WP to date will be removed, as Nokia helps with bringing down the price of WP smartphones. Lower price of the devices will be the crucial prerequisite for the expansion of WP models. Nokia knows it and Microsoft knows it, and I am sure they will act on it quickly.”
According to Bokun, a number of additional handset vendors, such as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, have also “placed their bets” on Redmond’s mobile operating system.
“With the change in the price of WP devices, and the multivendor strategic approach of Microsoft, the main advantage of Android – scale – may be removed. And although Nokia has suffered a significant loss from dragging out the Symbian story for too long, it’s [still] Nokia we are talking about.
“They are big enough and strong enough to take on a couple of painful hits and come out of the struggle stronger than ever. They are in a good position to learn and adjust because they know what was bad about Symbian, what’s creating gains and what’s causing problems for Android, as well as what the upsides and downsides of a system such as that of Apple, where the OS only runs on hardware manufactured by the vendor.”
Bokun also projected that Android’s growth in 2013 would slow – at least in comparison to the “skyrocketing surge” posted in 2010 and 2011.
“Even though WP will maintain the leadership from 2013 through 2015, the battle with Android will be fierce going forward and will result in many overtakings and ties between the two operating systems going forward – all at the expense of iOS and BlackBerry, which will experience a losing streak,” she explained.
“While RIM and Apple are powerful players in the smartphone market, their desire to limit their mobile operating systems to their own hardware has antagonized large manufacturers, such as Samsung, LG and Nokia, who have the capacity to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale and whose devices account for an overwhelming portion of the smartphone market.”
