Program platform Google Android will become the 2^nd most popular platform among operation systems for smartphones in the current year. In 2014 it will catch up with Symbian, Gartner predicts in its analytical summary.

Around 268.8 million smartphones are expected to be sold this year. Symbian’s market share is estimated to reach 40.1 % and Android based smartphones will take 17.7 %. BlackBerry and iOS devices will control 17.5 % and 15.4 % of the market respectively. Windows based devices will take 5^th place with 4.7 %.

According to Gartner, in 2014 manufacturers will sell around 875.6 million smartphones. Symbian will maintain its leading position, but the share for this OS will be reduced to 30.2 % whereas Android smartphones will take 29.6 % of the market by that time.

In 2009 the share of Android-based smartphones comprised only 3.9 %, however within a few months the platform managed to overtake Windows Mobile, iOS and BlackBerry OS. In the 2^nd quarter of the current year Android has become the most popular OS for smartphones in the USA.

The Finnish Nokia is the leading manufacturer of Symbian smartphones. On Friday the company reported a change in leadership: from September 21 Stephen Elop will be Nokia’s Executive Director and President.

One of the reasons for dismissing Nokia’s current head Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is the weakening of company’s position in the profitable smartphone segment. Nokia has for a long time not been producing bestselling models which could become compatible with the iPhone and Android-based devices.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 at 7:23 am and is filed under Mobile platforms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.