Android Set to Grow Immensely
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey in News
IDC, one of the top global analysis companies, is expecting the smartphone market to grow by 20% over the next three years. But that statistic did not stand out for me as much as the fact that they expect Android to become the fastest growing operating system in the mobile phone market. By 2013, they predict that 68 million Android handsets will be shipped which would make it the number two mobile phone operating system after Nokia’s Symbian.
Why does this surprise me? Well, that means Research in Motion and Apple would be below Android in 2013, and those are two companies that make their own proprietary hardware and operating systems to sell as one package.
So proprietary makers of computer operating systems and devices should take note. There are benefits for mobile computing devices to go towards an open source solution. The biggest positive is cost. Without licensing fees associated with an operating system such as Windows, computer makers are able to sell their products for a more favorable price. Plus, an open source platform such as Chrome OS has been seen by a wide array of developers before it has been released, making the chances of a serious security threat less of a problem.
It makes me wonder how strict Google’s supposed hardware standards will be for the Google netbook, and how stringent that they are with the smartphone products that are coming out with Android. My guess is that these two markets are vastly different, and the requirements that Google is making for Chrome OS devices is to ensure that the performance of their flagship product is light years ahead of its competition.
2 Responses to “Android Set to Grow Immensely”
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Mats
26. Jan, 2010
Of course Android will be the fastest growing smart phone OS in the years to come. What competition is there? RIM, Symbian, iPhone OS and WIndows Mobile are long established platforms, and their fast growth is in the past.
Qualcomm’s BREW is hardly a Smart Phone OS. WebOS is Palm, and we all know how well Palm stuff fare.
Daniel Cawrey
26. Jan, 2010
You’re right, there is no competition. I brought it up the to parallel the development and adoption of Android with what could be possible for Chrome OS.
It’s just that I see potential…