Windows Phone will overtake iPhone in just 3 years

Windows Phone will become the number two smartphone operating system in the world by 2015, predict analysts iSuppli. The analysts say that Android will remain the top operating system - as it is now - but Windows Phone will steadily rise until it overtakes iOS, the operating system used in Apple's iPhones and iPads. The key to the revival will be Nokia - and in particular its U.S.-focused Lumia 900 handset, which launched at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. So far, Windows Phone has remained niche, despite fan and reviewer enthusiasm for the operating system. Last year, Windows Phone accounted for just two per cent of the smartphone market. By 2015, that figure will be 16.7 per cent, says iSuppli. The analysts say that Nokia's recent adoption of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system will be key to the operating system's dominance. Analyst Wayne Lam says that the new Lumia 900 phone, a high-end smartphone recently unveiled by Nokia, will be the start of Windows Phone's revival - and will help Nokia regain the market share it has lost to Android devices and iPhones. 'One of the hottest new products unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show was the Lumia 900, a Windows Phone-based smartphone sporting a flashy set of features that makes it competitive with the best alternatives offered by the Android camp,' said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS. 'This hot product represents Nokia’s first step to reclaim its market share. Combined with Nokia’s efforts to drive the development of the Windows Phone ecosystem, the Lumia 900 and its successors will help Microsoft to reclaim its No. 2 ranking in smartphone operating system market share in 2015.' Nokia's focus on the American market will be key to its revival, says IHS. 'The introduction of the Lumia 900 shows that Nokia believes the road back to smartphone dominance runs through North America,' said Francis Sideco, senior principal analyst for consumer and communications at IHS. The Lumia 900 was developed with North American market dynamics and smartphone users in mind, with the product having been designed in and launched first in the region - a departure for the Finnish company.