Android to whup BlackBerry OS, Apple iOS market share by 2014, says analyst

By 2014, Android will have stormed past BlackBerry OS and Apple's iOS in terms of market share, becoming the second most popular mobile operating system behind Symbian, according to research firm IDC.

IDC predicts Android's market share will have grown by 51.2 per cent by 2014. As shown in the chart above, BlackBerry OS' market share is expected to fall by 3.5 per cent, Symbian's by 18 per cent, and iOS' by 25.8 per cent.

That still leaves Symbian in first place, with a 32.9 per cent market share in 2014. But Android will grow to take 24.6 per cent of the market, thereby securing second place. That leaves BlackBerry OS in third place, with a market share of 17.3 per cent.

From the figures, it looks like Android's growth is expected to hurt iOS, with the market share of Apple's operating system decreasing to 10.9 per cent, from 14.7 per cent now. That leaves iOS  in fourth place.

IDC also predicts that Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile won't make as much of an impact in the next four years as Microsoft might hope, accounting for 9.8 per cent of the market, compared to 6.8 per cent now. That's a growth of 43.3 per cent, but still leaves Microsoft's mobile operating systems in fifth place. 

IDC said it believes no single smart-phone operating system will come to dominate the market over the next few years in the way that Microsoft Windows has dominated the computer market.

What do you think? Will Apple's market share fall as Android appears on an increasing number of devices from a variety of manufacturers? Is BlackBerry OS' goose cooked? Let us know in the comments section below.