Android is set to extend its lead at the top of the US smartphone market by the year-end at the expense of Research in Motion (RIM). Data from eMarketer shows the share that Google’s OS will enjoy by the end of 2011 is 37% with RIM losing 10% of its share and dropping to 20%. Apple sits in between the two owning 29% of the market.
Principal Analyst at eMarketer, Noah Elkin, commented, “Within two years, Google and Apple will control nearly three-quarters of this key segment, making it very difficult for contenders like Microsoft and RIM to achieve scale.”
eMarketer goes further with projections for the year 2013. They show a market dominated by both Android (42%) and Apple (32%) with RIM a country mile behind on 15%. Their predictions have Microsoft at 9% and they could eat into RIM’s share even more if a tie-up with Nokia turns out lucrative. In terms of the amount that each user will have by 2013, Android will see a rise to around 50.4m in the US with Apple accounting for an estimated 38.4m.
It’s significant that Android owns the top spot for the gaming industry as their system doesn’t rely on apps quite as heavily as Apple. HTML5 is the future system that all companies should be building as far as apps are concerned. This comes down to the fact that the rules surrounding native gambling industry apps are both illogical and tend to fluctuate a great deal. It’s clear that these two will be ruling the roost in the smart phone market for a while longer.
