Last month, Neowin covered a report from IDC which stated that the Windows Phone platform would overtake that of the iPhone by 2015 in terms of market share. It would appear that the Market Intelligence Centre (MIC) has predicted a similar forecast which could be considered even more optimistic. The MIC foresee Android to have a 40% dominance, followed by iOS" 19% and Windows Phone with 17%.
The MIC also made some other predictions in its report for next year, with HTC becoming the fourth largest smartphone brand globally, shifting RIM (owner of the BlackBerry brand) out of the top four. Given HTC"s involvement with the Android platform, it"s no surprise that the MIC also predict Android to keep on growing with an estimated share next year of 40%, two percent more than this year. One interesting prediction however, is that Apple"s iOS will grow only by 1% over the next 12 months, highlighting the slower growth than their other competitors.
The smartphone market has been growing at a very fast rate in the past few years since the release of Apple"s first iPhone, which brought a business essential to the masses. In the United States, the smartphone holds a 38% share against those of feature phones which is at 62%. In this latest prediction, the feature phone market will decline by almost 8%, taking it to 54% using figures from Mobile Insights.
As we"ve covered previously, due to the deal that Microsoft have been able to make with Nokia, Windows Phone"s market share is due to jump given that Nokia has had a particularly strong presence in smartphone manufacturing. Nokia is relying on Windows Phone as much as Microsoft is relying on Nokia to deliver a bigger market share; only time will tell if both will be satisfied with the result of the deal.
Image Source: microsoftfeed.com