Depending on what analyst you listen to, Android shipments are going increase a lot this year.
Strategy Analytics predicts global Android smartphone shipments will grow 900 percent in 2009. While IDC predicts a meager 420% growth rate for Android smartphones in 2009.
Strategy Analytics believes ealthy support from operators, vendors and developers is driving Android adoption.They also expect the Apple iPhone OS will be the next fastest-growing smartphone operating system in 2009, with a 79 percent growth rate.
Tom Kang, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, "The Android mobile operating system from Google gained early traction in the United States in the second half of 2008 and it is gradually spreading its presence into Europe and Asia during 2009."
Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Android has fast been winning healthy support among operators, vendors and developers. A relatively low-cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google's support for cloud services have encouraged companies such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung, T-Mobile, Vodafone and others to support the Android operating system. Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years."
Other analysts are not as gung-ho on Google's open source mobile operating system Android. Francisco Jeranimo an analyst with IDC told The Inquirer that IDC expects Android to grow around 420% totaling of 3.6m units worldwide in 2009. He noted since most units will ship in the in Q3 and Q4, it will limit Android's growth in 2009.
The main reason Android's growth, according to Jeranimo, is that the industry is looking for a way to alleviate Symbian/Nokia - dominance and to keep market control. Android is being picked is for "technical and commercial issues, rather than strategic."