Report: Apple's iOS and Google's Android to split mobile market

Research from Global Equities Research suggest that the Apple and Android operating systems are likely to increase their dominance of the mobile marketplace, eventually coming to share 98% of the market.  After talking with app developers, they concluded that

"98 percent of [the mobile market] will be shared by Google Android and Apple iOS. There will not be any third spot left. Nokia, Microsoft and RIM will struggle in the remaining 2 percent of the market."

  There's numbers backing that conclusion.  Apple's sold more than 400 million iOS devices, and the number of people who have set up one-click-billing accounts has doubled in the last year (reaching 435 million accounts - last year there were 180 million).  Google's Android is also doing well, with more than 1.2 million device activations a day.  And there is cross-over as well - the recent Google YouTube iOS app was downloaded a million times in the first 24 hours.
  In contrast, analysts were cautiously mixed in their predictions about the heavily hyped Nokia Lumia 920/Windows Phone 8 product launch.  Some even called the product pair "poor industrial design" and "dead on arrival."  (In large part because the screen is too large for easy one-handed operation).  While the Nokia just launched, the new RIM - Blackberry product launch has been pushed back to January.
  In the meantime, Apple recently launched the iPhone 5, and analysts expect an iPad Mini to be available next month.  On the Android side, Kindle just launched a new family of Kindle Fire tablets, and October should see the new Android OS (Jelly Bean), some 30 new Google apps, and at least 15 new Android-running smartphones.

"The innovation rivalry between Apple and Google will not leave any third slot in the mobile space," concluded report author Trip Chowdhry. He added, "Innovation velocity of both Apple and Google far exceeds that of its peers."

  The analysts see one potential ray of hope for a challenger OS - the fact that Apple and Android dominance (and their competition) have forced wireless operators to heavily subsidize many of the newest products.  Some financial analysts have warned that the iPhone 5 launch would likely result in a significant hit on wireless operator profits.  The various wireless operators could help a third OS challenger by pushing a third platform; but this is only likely to help if that third platform could offer highly capable, competitive, smartphones at low price points.  Microsoft has the funds to subsidize product lines if it wants to, and has been very innovative in the past.  Its had a problem, though, getting many of those innovations adopted by consumers.

Source -  Android, Apple Dominance Leaves No Room for Third Platform: Report,  CIO Insight Mobile & Wireless.