You are here: Home / General, Smartphones / Android Will Bypass iPhone By 2012, Says Gartner.

Android Will Bypass iPhone By 2012, Says Gartner.

Posted by Gil Bouhnick on Oct 08, 2009 Share

gartner136

From the very beginning we knew Google’s Android is going to be something big. Google, open source, cloud, a long list of devices manufacturers supporting this effort – it cannot go wrong.

The first version did not make us too excited (but made others too excited…) but the “cupcake” version (1.5) was much better, and then came a few really good handsets as well.

Androids

Gartner Inc. predicts that the Android will make the highest jump in the next 2 years, surging from 2% market-share today to 14% of the global smartphone market in 2012.

Gartner forecasts that Android will actually rank second globally, behind the Symbian OS, (which by the way will continue to fall from more than 50% to 39%) in 2012.

The reasons, according to Gartner, are Google’s great support for this OS, the range of cloud computing functions, the fact that it’s an open source, and of course the manufacturers behind the OS which according to Gartner are expected to release around 40 Android models in 2010, many of them with the new OS version (code-named Donut).

Android_Tripod
The Triandroids are coming! (We said it long time ago!)

Another interesting point (which I tend to agree with) is that while iPhone is clearly focused on applications, games, entertainment, and Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian are focused on productivity and tasks, the Android has a nice mixture which somehow manages to grab both areas.

The complete Gartner forecast for smartphones in 2012:

- Symbian: 203 million devices sold (39% of the market)
- Android: 76 million units sold (14.5% of the market)
- iPhone: 71.5 million devices in 2012 (13.7% market share)
- Windows Mobile: 66.8 million units sold (12.8% of the market)
- BlackBerry OS: 65.25 million devices (12.5% market share)
- Various Linux devices: 28 million units (5.4% market share)
- Palm’s new webOS: 11 million units (2.1% of the market)

Surprisingly, BlackBerry seems to move down from second place to fifth, while Android will take over the second place by storm (hmm… wrong term… Storm).

Gartner have made their bets (and I’m in), what are yours? 

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook

Gil Bouhnick (59 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook


Gil Bouhnick is a guest writer at MobilitySite and the owner of The Mobile Spoon. He is a Director of Mobile Solutions at ClickSoftware, running ClickSoftware's MobileFever, and constantly trying to examine new mobile trends and technologies.

RELATED POSTS:
  • Linux in an iPhone
  • 4.68 millions UMPC units by 2012
  • Android Cupcake in May?
  • iPhone
  • World Smartphone Sales Report

    • ADVERTISEMENT

    • Android has always looked appealing, I will say, however it is still a baby, and I don't think it will pass the iPhone anytime soon.

      I base this statement on a few things. For one, the iPhone is a closed OS, and runs on only one hardware: the iPhone. That would make it very easy to develop apps and provide more variety for it's users. Android, on the other hand, is an open platform, as well as open source, meaning not only will it be running on various hardware, it can also be modded in any way the manufacturer pleases. That means that the availability of apps will vary depending on what phone you have, since any modifications made could break compatibility of certain (if not all) apps.

      The other thing is that the iPhone is very popular. Many people I've seen have the iPhone, almost 90% of people at my school (including staff) own an iPhone. Apple may have the cell phone market in it's pocket, much like it has the mp3 player market (because let's face it, iPod has pretty much become a generic name for an mp3 player).

      This is only my opinion, however, and I could be wrong. I am open for debate.
    • Look at how bunched the major non-Symbian platforms are, though. Only 2% separates Android from BlackBerry, with the iPhone and Windows Mobile in between. That doesn't sound like Windows Mobile is dead, does it?

      The other surprise, besides BlackBerry's position, is Palm's WebOS doing rating so poorly.

      Steve
    • Please ignore posts by quakerkatheryn and flag them. She only posts to spam her blog, which links to a "free" deal site where you have to complete a bunch of offers to get the item "free".

      Pfeh!

      Steve
    blog comments powered by Disqus
    Advertisement

    Subscription

    You can subscribe by e-mail to receive news updates and breaking stories.

    RSS In the Forums

    Recent Comments

    Tags

    Blogroll

    Categories

    About Mobilitysite

    Mobilitysite.com is a site covering Mobility News, Reviews, and Discussion. Our coverage focuses on Windows Mobile Phones and PDAs, but extends on past that as well. Tablet PC, UMPC, and Personal Media Players like the Zune and iPod are loosely covered as well. To learn more about Mobilitysite and/or Aximsite, read here. Also take time to register in our forums too. There is a wealth of information to be found inside and registering yourself in the forums also registers you with the blog portion of the site. Mobilitysite has 9045 RSS Subscribers.