Last year a total of 302 million smartphones were shipped, representing a 71% growth over 2009’s shipment levels. According to ABI Research, Android will be the biggest winner of the smartphone race, growing from 69 million smartphones shipped last year to a prime position in 2016 when it is set to capture 45% of the market.
The research company’s senior analyst Michael Morgan argues that the demise of Symbian OS will open opportunities for other platforms like Android, Bada and BlackBerry OS.
Apple’s iOS, which held 15% of the market in 2010, should continue moderate but steady growth over the mid-term, securing 19% of the market by 2016.
RIM on the other end captured 16% of the smartphone market last year, but is expected to drop to 14% by 2016.
As for the smaller (new) players, ABI said that Bada managed to grab 1.5% of the market, with Samsung shipping 4 million of various Wave phone models in 2010. The research company goes on suggesting that if Samsung keeps pushing its platform, 5 years from now – it may capture 10% of the market.
As for Windows Phone 7, if the Nokia deal goes as planned, Microsoft will command 7% of the market by 2016…
Additional information is available from ABI’s “Smartphone Market Data” service.