The worldwide mobile operating system (OS) market will be dominated by Symbian and Android, as the two OSs will account for 59.8 percent of mobile OS sales by 2014, according to a study by Gartner. Symbian is expected to remain at the top of Gartner's worldwide OS ranking due to Nokia's volume and the push into more mass market price points. However, by the end of the forecast period, the No. 1 position will be contested with Android. Communication service providers' marketing and vendor support for Android-based smartphones will push the platform to the second-largest platform rank, following Symbian, by year-end. Gartner also forecasts that manufacturers such as Samsung will launch many new budget Android devices in the second half of this year, driving Android into mass market segments. Other players, such as Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola, are expected to run a similar strategy. This trend is expected to help Android become the top OS in North America by end-2010. The study further anticipates that, by 2014, open-source platforms will continue to dominate more than 60 percent of the market for smartphones. Single-source platforms, such as Apple's iOS and Research In Motion's OS, will increase in unit terms. However, their growth rate will be below market average and not enough to sustain share increase. Windows Phone will be drop to the sixth position, behind MeeGo in the worldwide OS ranking by 2014.
