Linux to flood the smartphone market within 5 years?
LiMo Foundation and the Open Handset Alliance (driven by Google) are making some strong progress in their Linux-based open source mobile operating systems. Verizon recently announced its support of LiMo and Google Android is attracting a wide swath of developers creating unique mobile solutions.
Many in the mobile industry have been skeptical of Linux based mobile operating systems like LiMo and Google Android, relegating the initiatives to a temporary fad.
ABI Research disagrees, saying “by 2013, we expect that Linux will take 23% of the smartphone market and will be the second most prevalent solution behind Symbian. And although LiMo and Android will take the lion’s share of the market for Linux solutions, there will be opportunities for solutions such as Maemo which will be facilitated by the encroachment of the MID (Mobile Internet Device) form factor into the mobile devices landscape.”
For a company like Nokia, which is struggling to establish its market presence in North America, that could be especially troubling news, “Nokia’s poor position in the Americas resulted in a 2007 share of only 4% for Symbian in the American smartphone market. It is imperative that Symbian looks to grow its share of the North American market by gaining more traction from other handset vendors that are performing well there.”
Getting sandwiched between open source Linux solutions and Windows doesn’t sound like a good situation, but maybe Nokia’s strong presence in Europe will help pull the company through.
For the end consumer though, this is only good news because it will result in more competition and innovation in the mobile marketplace.
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