The global smartphone market has certainly been on a rise during these last couple of years and, according to new projections from Taiwan’s Marketing Intelligence & Consulting Institute, the progress won’t stop in 2012.
The MIC’s report once again proves Android’s domination of the smartphone market, with Google’s mobile operating system powering 46 percent of all gadgets shipped in 2011 (around 206 million units).
Microsoft’s smartphone share is also set to climb during 2012, but all in all only around 80 million Windows-based gadgets are expected to ship in the following 12 months.
Android’s share is expected to rise even further and it’s likely that around 50 percent of all smartphones sold and shipped in 2012 will be powered by Google’s OS. That means that we should expect around 307 million new Android-based smartphones in the hands of technology geeks all over the world, compared to the more modest 116 million units expected to ship with Apple’s iOS on-board.
As far as manufacturers go, Samsung should be the number-one vendor in 2012 with a market share of around 22 percent, while Apple is set to be second, with a growing share of almost 19 percent. HTC, who has gone through one of its worst quarters at the end of 2011, should come back stronger than ever and can get a market share of around 11 percent by the end of this year.
Nokia, on the other hand, will drop considerably to around 15.6 percent, according to projections, as will RIM, who shouldn’t have more than 8.6 percent of the total global smartphones in December.
