IDC predicts Windows Phone will overtake iOS market share by 2015

For the surprising news of the week, it appears that the IDC has some interesting predictions to share. According to their team of researchers and analysts, they see Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform overtaking iOS’s market share by the year 2015. They believe that the worldwide smartphone market will grow almost 50% this year (49.2% to be exact) and Apple’s iOS will only make up for 15.7% of that share while Windows Phone will rise up to 5.5%. Nothing too surprising there, but fast forward 4 more years, and iOS is predicted to have dropped to 15.3% while Windows Phone would have risen to 20.9% in 2015. Reasons for Windows Phone’s growth mainly include the Microsoft-Nokia deal that sees Nokia bringing WP phones into the market place. But with Nokia mentioning that they will still support Symbian (at least until its demise – which isn’t set in stone yet) and the whole deal not even finalized yet, that might not be the case. However, 4 years is a long time away, especially in the world of technology, and *anything* could happen. I’m pretty sure 4 years ago, Nokia had no idea that the Symbian platform was going to be killed off and be replaced by Windows Phone in the high-end. What are your thoughts on the IDC’s predictions?

 

George Wong
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apple Inc, idc, iOS, market share, Microsoft, prediction, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7, wp