On the hard battleground that is the smartphone operating system, the iPhone OS and the Android OS gained the most growth in 2009 as the number one smartphone operating system, Symbian shrank according to Gartner reports an article over on silicon.
Apparently Symbian lost 5.5 percentage points meaning Symbian ended last year with 46.9% market share where previously in 2008 Symbian held 52.4%. Apparently Gartner said that competitive pressure from BlackBerry maker research In Motion, and iPhone maker Apple in conjunction with “continued weakness” of Nokia high end devices hit Symbian market share.
On the Microsoft front their Windows Mobile OS shrank 3.1 percentage points by the year’s end bringing them to 8.7% market share.
Principal research analyst at Gartner, Roberta Cozza noted that Symbian had become uncompetitive while its market share remained strong, and if Symbian can use the momentum of Symbian^3, it could return to positive growth.