In a recent analytical report by IDC, by 2013 Android is tipped to be the second most popular smartphone OS, behind Symbian. In their own words, “IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.” This makes them very well suited to interpreting and forecasting future trends in the mobile arena.

Some of the key results of the analysis include a note that Symbian will retain its market position as the global smart phone OS of choice due to Nokia’s dominance outside of the US. Smartphone devices will surpass 390 million units which accounts for a compound annual growth rate of 20.9% from 2009 – 2013. Linux and webOS will struggle throughout this period primarily due to limited deployment and availability of devices that run this OS.