Android to Become No. 2 Worldwide Mobile Operating System in 2010 and Challenge Symbian by 2014

The worldwide mobile operating system (OS) market will be dominated by Symbian and Android, as the two OSs will account for 59.8% of mobile OS sales by 2014, according to Gartner. Symbian will remain at the top of Gartner's worldwide OS ranking due to Nokia's volume and the push into more mass market price points. But by the end of 2014, the No. 1 spot will be contested with Android, which will be at a very similar share level.

"The worldwide mobile OS market is dominated by four players: Symbian, Android, Research In Motion and iOS. Launches of updated operating systems - such as Apple iOS 4, BlackBerry OS 6, Symbian 3 and Symbian 4, and Windows Phone 7 - will help maintain strong growth in smartphones in 2H 2010 and 2011 and spur innovation. However, we believe that market share in the OS space will consolidate around a few key OS providers that have the most support from CSPs and developers and strong brand awareness with consumer and enterprise customers," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner

Communication service providers' (CSPs') marketing and vendor support for Android-based smartphones will drive the platform to become the second-largest platform, following Symbian, by year-end 2010. This is almost two years earlier than Gartner predicted a year ago.

some information regarding how much the new iPhone 3G really cost Apple. Based on their calculation, Apple seems to be making roughly fifty fuve percent profit margin. While iSuppli did not count into research and development cost, the number is quite interesting.

Stripping off the new iPhone 3G for component lists and price them individually, iSuppli determined that a 8GB iPhone 3G costs $173.33 to build. AT&T is rumored to be paying Apple $300 subsidy on each iPhone 3G sales, that put the iPhone 3G total prices to $499 for the 8GB version and translate to the fifty five percent margin stated above.
“iSuppli believes Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price - which will allow the company to seed adoption and to capture maximum market share now - while the company still has buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors.”

If this number hold any truth, Apple’s one million iPhone 3G sold during the weekend should put its quarterly earning higher than before.