Android Will Be Number 2 Mobile Operating System Worldwide by Year-End

Research analysts at Gartner have forecasted that Google's Android mobile operating system (OS) will become the second largest platform in terms of market share by year-end 2010. Symbian, however, will remain number one. Garner also notes that by 2014, the end of the forecast period for this latest market research report, Android will vie for the top spot against Nokia's Symbian OS.

Yes, Android is officially on the path to world domination.

Here in the U.S., much of the tech news is centered on the smartphone battle between Apple's iPhone and Android. But on the global stage, the top mobile players are Nokia's Symbian, Android, Research in Motion (makers of Blackberry smartphones), then iOS, the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Principal analyst Roberta Cozza at Gartner noted that recent and upcoming launches of new smartphone operating systems including iOS4, Blackberry OS 6, Symbian 3 and 4 and Windows Phone 7, will help maintain the current trend of heavy growth in the smartphone sector, but her firm believes that market share worldwide will still revolve around the four key providers mentioned above.

The reason these companies have maintained, and likely will continue to maintain, their top spots involves a number of factors, most notably the support they have from communications service providers and developers, as well as their strong brand awareness with both enterprise and consumer customers.

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