by Emma Dibdin
thanks to osde8info on flickr
Mobile forecasters anticipate that Android will continue to lead the smartphone market over the next few years, the Guardian blog reports today.
The 2016 predicted stats from business forecaster Ovum are as follows: they expect Android to take a 38% market share, with Apple second at 17.5%, Windows Phone at 17.2% and BlackBerry OS at 16.5%. Other developing OS such as MeeGo will account for the remaining 10.8%.
As the Guardian’s Stuart Dredge points out, one of the most interesting aspects of these forecasts is their assertion that the Windows Phone won’t be the flop many are predicting.
It’s also notable that Android is predicted to lead by a wide margin, with the other three OS coming in with very comparable figures.
But the second set of predicted figures, from forecaster IDC, are even more surprising. They predict that Microsoft won’t only succeed with their smartphone, but they’ll even overtake Apple by 2015. They expect Android to lead with 45.4%, with Windows second at 20.9%, and Apple trailing well behind both at 15.3%.
To an Apple devotee such as myself, this is near blasphemy. Android’s lead is hardly surprising, as they took first place last year, but the idea of Microsoft’s much-derided Windows Phone outselling the iPhone is a much harder pill to swallow. But I’m far from a tech expert, and even further from a market analyst. Of course, these are only projected figures, and a lot will depend on whether the race continues to be a four-horse one, or whether a fifth major smartphone platform emerges.
What are your predictions for the smartphone future? Drop us a comment!
