iSuppli: Google's Android to overtake Apple's iOS by 2012

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According to Teng, cell phone OEMs representing all tiers of the industry have committed to support Android, including Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Huawei, AsusTek and ZTE.

"This broad industry support will allow the Android OS's usage and market share to exceed that of its chief rival-iOS-in 2012, just five years after its introduction," Teng added.

As Google's Android is widely adopted by many phone makers, the proprietary nature of the iOS and Apple's closed system business model will limit the number of smart phones with the operating system, iSuppli said.

War Over Wireless Hegemony

iSuppli predicts that global carrier revenue for wireless data services, excluding messaging but including data access fees, will grow to approximately $250 billion by 2014, up from $108.6 billion in 2009.

However, the size of the over-the-top mobile broadband revenue from premium content, services, applications and advertising, a market that is in its infancy today, could exceed $100 billion in 2014. This is the area that players like Apple and Google are attempting to target.

Google and Apple, the well- matched competitors  in the fierce battle for control of the wireless market,  eye to gain from wireless market, which represents the most lucrative growth opportunity in the technology world today.

But both these companies are adopting very different business models to unlock value in the mobile broadband value chain, according to Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst at iSuppli.

"While Google is trying hard to capture market share in the smart phone market, Apple's strategy is aimed at making its products highly desirable but not necessarily affordable for the mass market," Rebello said. "Apple has been successful in doing this with its friendly User Interface (UI), its slick OS and its well developed ecosystem of apps and content providers."

The Google/Apple wireless battle extends from the smart phone sales race between the iPhone and Droid lines, to the applications front with Apple's App Store and Google's Apps Marketplace, to the advertising battle between Apple's iAd and Google's AdMob and to a range of location based services that both are trying hard to develop and monetize, iSuppli said.

The market share competition between Android and iOS represents a central front in this fight, iSuppli concludes.

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