Android to climb to top of smartphone market

The Android will become the most popular operating system (OS) worldwide by the end of 2011 and account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012, according to technology research company Gartner.

The company also says global smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, which will represent a 57.7 percent increase from 2010.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has previously said the search engine plans to incorporate near field communication (NFC) technology, to facilitate contactless payments, into its next wave of Android smartphones.

Gartner says sales of open OS devices will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile device market.

“By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized,” said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner.

“As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers.

“Android's position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

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