SmartPhone Market Grows More Rapidly, Year 2014 Prediction By IDC

IDC market analysis predicts there are some good times ahead for smartphones. Smartphone market share is expected to grow by over 50% in next 4 years. The overall phone market is growing faster than anticipated too - in 2010 the market should grow by 14.1% (1.5% higher than initial estimates). In the coming years, smartphone market will keep growing though at a slower pace - 24.5% in 2011 and only 13.6% in 2014.

IDC analysts actually had to increase their prediction of how much the smartphone market will grow this year by as much as 10%. That means they expect a healthy 269.6 million smartphones to ship by the end of the year, a huge improvement over the 173.5 million number from last year. That's a growth of 55.4%.

But there might be some tough time ahead of Apple's iOS. Because with Android and Windows gaining ground so iOS will be declining in the future. Speaking of 2014, here are some interesting estimates IDC has prepared on the smartphone OS market share four years in the future. Symbian will keep the number 1 spot, though with smaller share. Android will snatch the number two spot and Windows will grow to just below 10%.

BlackBerry OS is expected to retain its current share (though it will slip to third place). Interestingly though iOS share will drop by 25% in the next four years. We'll have to wait and see if these predictions pan out - but if they do, the Redmond OS will nearly equal the Cupertino OS market share in 2014.
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