Android Platform, Second Most Important Popular Mobile Operating System

Google’s Android platform is all set for an incredible growth in terms of number of users and will become the second most popular mobile operating system in three years down the line, if predictions made by an analyst firm come true.

Market research firm IDC predicted that the Google-owned Android platform will grow faster than all its rivals to reach the second spot by the year 2013, second only to Nokia’s Symbian.

Incidentally, IDC’s prediction just reflects recent projections from Garner Inc., which claimed that Android platform would snare the second spot in 2012.

As of now, the mobile OS market is being dominated by Nokia-owned Symbian, followed by BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, and Apple at the third spot.

However, the situation is drastically different in the US market where Symbian has very little share, and BlackBerry is the clear leader, followed by Apple, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

“In a market that was once dominated by a handful of pioneers, such as BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, newcomers touting open standards (Android) and intuitive design and navigation (Mac OS X and webOS) have garnered strong end-user and handset vendor interest”, the analyst firm said in its announcement. 

In terms of figures, Android OS, which roughly had 700,000 units shipped in 2008, would grow rapidly to reach to the figure of 68 million units by the end of 2013.