Android and Apple to be the big winners in N America

Rating: RIM to stay top and Microsoft to suffer says Canalys

While RIM will retain its leading position in the North American market during 2010, it will be Android which will enjoy the greatest growth. That could spell danger for network operators because Android could low the cost of entry for smartphone users and put tremendous pressure on their data networks, says Canalys.

The figures for Android are nothing short of astounding. How about growing in 2010 by 169 per cent to more than 12.3 million units compared to 4.7 million in 2009?

Or that Canalys expects 21.7 million Android smart phones to ship in North America in 2013? That’s on the back of new devices from HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG.

Source: Canalys

RIM had virtually half of the North American smartphone market in 2009 while Apple – at No: 2 – had 23 per cent. Both will lose a modest portion of their share in 2010, Canalys predicts.

And what of Nokia? Well, it might be pants at selling smartphones into North America but in 2009, Symbian was the leading smart phone platform in South America taking a 42 per cent market share. So there.

With the whole of the N American smartphone market set to grow by 38 per cent in 2010, “With smartphones becoming cheaper, more customers will want to consume data services over carriers’ networks.

Expect to see more concerted efforts to optimise data transmission where possible,” observed Daryl Chiam, a senior analyst with Canalys.

“Vendors, too, will come under pressure to improve data efficiency,” Chris Jones predicted. ‘RIM has a lead in this regard. BlackBerry devices are highly efficient in terms of the data traffic they send over carriers’ networks.

Other smart phone vendors will need to improve the way their devices handle data.”

Still, growing numbers of smartphone owners coupled with lower entry costs for smartphone ownership will help developers. Maybe they too should start to think about data optimisation, though.