Android is expected to surpass Apple in global smartphone market share by the year 2012.
According to iSupply, Google’s mobile OS will be loaded onto 75 million smart phones by 2012, up from 5 million in 2009. Meanwhile, iOS usage will amount to 62 million in 2012, increasing from 25 million in 2009.
“This will give Android a 19.4 percent of the global market for smartphone OSes in 2012, up from 2.7 percent in 2009,” senior iSuppli analyst Tina Teng told TG Daily in an e-mailed statement.
“[And] Apple’s iOS for the iPhone will see its share rise to 15.9 percent in 2012, up from 13.8 percent in 2009. [But by] 2014, Android’s share of global smart phone OS usage will rise to 22.8 percent, while iOS will decline to 15.3 percent.”
Teng explained that Google’s popular Android OS has taken the crowded smartphone market by “storm.”
“The OS started with entry level models in 2008, but the flexibility Android offers for hardware designs and its appealing business model in terms of revenue sharing have attracted vigorous support from all nodes in the value chain, including makers of high-end smart phone models.
“[As such], cell phone OEMs representing all tiers of the industry have committed to support Android, including Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Huawei, AsusTek and ZTE.”
The senior analyst added that Apple’s “closed system business model” would inevitably limit the number of smartphones with iOS.
“[Nevertheless], Apple’s family of iPhone products [will likely] continue to be the standard by which all other smart phones are measured.”
