Researchers at Gartner are predicting that Google’s android mobile OS could overtake the iPhone’s in just over 2 years. Android is poised to leapfrog the iPhone’s OS in to the number two spot by 2012. This means that the iPhone will be at number 3, where it right now, behind Blackberry and Nokia’s Symbian. Gartner researchers believe that by the year 2012 RIM’s software would have lost 7 percent of their market share placing them at fifth place, even behind Windows Mobile. Android, meanwhile, will get a 12.9 percent boost to become the number 2 smartphone platform in the world, with Symbian still safe in the number 1 spot, even though its market share is a dwindling 39 percent of the global market.
Google’s open source Android platform, which boasts one of the finest touchscreen interfaces available, iPhone included, came out slow in fall 2008 with the solid, if uninspiring T-Mobile G1. Although nothing else happened with regard to Android, they finally launched a follow up with the HTC myTouch3G. The Android platform soon became popular and many US service providers including T-mobile, Verizon and Sprint started launching handsets featuring the platform. Altogether, there have been five Android based devices launched in the past few months and two or maybe even more handsets coming out before the end of 2009. However, as the current stats stand, iPhone has 10.8 percent of the market and Android a mere 1.6 percent. But, since Apple is the only one making the iPhone and Android being available to anyone who wants to use it, which means that over the next few years Android has a big chance of overtaking the iPhone.