Windows Phone 7 is seemingly an afterthought in the industry of mobile phones, considering the domination of Android and Apple, but a recent study by technology intelligence agency IHS iSuppli suggests the dark horse could emerge.
Windows Phone 7 is seemingly an afterthought in the industry of mobile phones, considering the domination of Android and Apple, but a recent study by technology intelligence agency IHS iSuppli suggests the dark horse could emerge.
Over the past few years, both Android and Apple have been the most reliable and sought out mobile providers across the entire world. Android relies on its mass of smartphone distribution, while Apple focuses less on distribution and more on software quality, mobile content and online presence. Apple and Android are the leading enterprises in the industry, while the rest of the competition is far behind.
According to HIS, by 2015, Android's current share of the smartphone operating system market of approximately 50 percent will grow to 58.1 percent, Apple iOS will drop 1.4 percent to 16.6 percent and Windows will increase from 9 percent to 16.7 percent. If the estimates hold true, Windows will have overtaken Apple for second place in the smartphone OS market share.
With the growth of Windows Phone 7, mobile application developers may benefit from creating software tailored to those smartphones. According to Gartner, by 2015, more than 185 billion applications will have been downloaded since 2008.
