These days, the smartphone wars are typically viewed as a competition between the platforms of two companies: Apple and Google. Despite its years-long dominance of the desktop, Windows has hardly been a blip on the smartphone marketshare radar, where it clocks in at just under 2% of the market.
That’s all set to change within three years, according to a growing chorus of analysts. The latest to vouch for the impending growth of Windows Phone is iSuppli, who last week predicted that the platform could outperform Apple’s iOS by 2015.
This echoes previous predictions from the likes of IDC and Gartner, and certainly isn’t at odds with the future as envisioned by Nokia president Chris Weber, who stated last year that Windows Phone will make iOS and Android look antiquated in due time. To be sure the platform’s growth will fueled by Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia and the buzz-worthy devices it generates, such as the Lumia 900 and its brethren.
Still, some have balked at the claim that Windows Phone could rise to challenge iOS anytime so soon, given Apple’s propensity to upgrade its mobile hardware every year, with even modest iterations yielding surprisingly successful results. What do you think?
