Yes folks, it’s market share prediction time once again, and this time round it appears that the strongest other than Android is predicted to be Windows Phone, with IDC predicting Microsoft’s OS will overtake both the iPhone and BlackBerry by the year 2015.

According to an article over on the Boy Genius Report, IDC predict world smartphone shipments will grow to 450 million by 2011, which is a rise of 49.2 percent over the 2010 figure of 303.4 million.

However more importantly is IDC’s prediction from 2011 to 2015, which they predict with Nokia pushing Windows Phone 7 devices Windows Phone will overtake both the iPhone and BlackBerry to grab the number two slot behind Android by 2015.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst for IDC has said… “The new alliance brings together Nokia’s hardware capabilities and Windows Phone’s differentiated platform. We expect the first devices to launch in 2012. By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android.”

Now of course this is just a prediction, and a great deal can change in the course of four years, and no doubt Windows Phone 7 will grow, but you can’t discard iOS and BlackBerry just yet and like I’ve said on many a previous occasion, analysts can be wrong.

Having said that, Android will no doubt keep hold of the top slot due to the many devices sporting the operating system, whether Apple and BlackBerry can fend off WP7 in the coming years remains to be seen.