According to eMarketer, Apple is to pass Research In Motion as the leader of the US smartphone market this year, only to be overtaken by Android in 2012.
eMarketer, which bases its forecasts on analysis of research estimates and methodologies from multiple firms who monitor the smartphone market, estimates Apple took a 28% share of the US smartphone user market in 2010, just above the 24% of users who use a device running Android.
RIM’s share of the market is expected to decline to 25% in 2011, down from 30% in 2010.
eMarketer predicts that Google’s Android platform will continue to gain share through 2012, with 31% of all smartphone users owning an Android-powered handset (up from 6% in 2009).
By then, Apple’s market share is expected to clock off at 30%, up only slightly from 2009.
In the words of Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst and author of a forthcoming report on mobile devices:
“With a growing roster of manufacturer and carrier partners in every major market and market segment, scale for Android is coming quickly in terms of device, market share, apps and ad revenues.”
