SAN JOSE, Calif. — By the end of 2010, Google’s Android smartphone operating system will in a single year have leapfrogged competing mobile systems such as Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows phones in global popularity, while Android will challenge Nokia to become the world’s most popular smartphone operating system by 2014, research firm Gartner said last week.
Issuing its annual global smartphone forecast, Gartner said the explosive popularity of Google’s mobile operating system will make Android the world’s second-most-popular operating system by the end of this year, with Android accounting for 17.7 percent of worldwide sales — up from 3.9 percent at the end of 2009. Google says it is currently seeing more than 200,000 Android phones activated every day.
With manufacturers like Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola planning to offer budget Android phones this fall, Android will become a technology that will have double the iPhone’s worldwide market share by 2014, Gartner said.
“It’s a matter of Android really going more into the hands of the mainstream user,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The iPhone will remain focused toward the higher end of the market, while through the end of this year and into 2011, all that growth you see in Android will come from the fact that most of the vendors who are backing it will release cheaper smartphones.”
