Smartphone market share battle hots up as Apple and Google up the ante

As the smartphone market, and the mobile broadband market with it, continue to grow, figures are suggesting Nokia's Symbian operating system is continuing to lose chunks of its strong position to its rivals.

As reported by silicon.com, figures for the close of 2009 saw Symbian devices holding a 46.9 per cent of market share (down 5.5 per cent from 52.4 per cent in 2008), with BlackBerry in second place (19.9 per cent, up 3.3 per cent), Apple's iPhone now in third (14.4 per cent, up 6.2 per cent), Microsoft's Windows Mobile in fourth (down 3.1 per cent to 8.7 per cent) and Google's Android phones in sixth with 3.9 per cent (up 3.6 per cent).

While Nokia's lead is still substantial, it had a very quiet Mobile World Congress while its rivals were tearing up the place. A tiny Symbian stand was dwarfed by its rivals, with Windows announcing a much improved OS, Google giving away hundreds of shiny new Nexus One handsets and BlackBerry taking big areas of real estate at the show with all kinds of fresh apps. Needless to say, iPhone apps were also in abundance.

It's hard to predict if the new Windows Phone OS will halt its slide, but you can guarantee Android and iPhone will continue to take market share. With BlackBerry seemingly safe in its niche business/email market, it leaves Symbian looking very vulnerable - especially as general opinion seems to suggest there are one or two too many operating systems in the marketplace. This year could be make or break for Nokia in terms of its position in the smartphone OS market.