According to the analysts at IDC, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 (WP7), may still have lower market share, but few years down the line, it’ll be chasing Android’s tail.

In the struggle to enter and create its brand in the Samrtphone market, Microsoft ran in a crisis. But last, the company reset its mobile efforts with all-new WP7 OS, and received a significant boost when the world’s largest OEM – Nokia – signed up to the platform.

“Up until the launch of Windows Phone 7 last year, Microsoft has steadily lost market share while other operating systems have brought forth new and appealing experiences. The new alliance brings together Nokia’s hardware capabilities and Windows Phone’s differentiated platform.”

 Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst, IDC

Even though the launch of Nokia WP7 device is not expected until next year, but 2015 will put Nokia-Microsoft partnership at the second spot, following the lead of Android.

IDC suggests Android will obtain 39.5% market share in 2011, rising to 45.4% by 2015 (compound annual growth rate of 23.8%). Meanwhile, WP7 will bloat from just 5.5% this year to just over 20.9%, by 2015 (CAGR of 67.1%).

The analyst believes the next five years will witness RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Apple’s iOS largely treading water, with iOS staying in third place (15.7% market share in 2011, dipping to 15.3% by 2015). Meanwhile, RIM’s fourth-place OS drops from 14.9% in 2011 to 13.7% by 2015.

The analyst predicts the worldwide smartphone market will grow by 49.2% 8in 2011, as more business and consumer users trade in feature-ready

Considering the Nokia/Microsoft alliance, it’s not surprising to see the latest entrant in the Android Photoshop fail series that had Nokia logo on it. But, it seems that Nokia and Google have overcome their differences and created an almost button-less, Deezer-running Android phone for the masses. The phone will be available via Orange.

Any takes on this piece? 

The topic last week was if Android has conquered the world. Top data companies in the mobile industry have conflicting reports. While Canalys reported Android as the new world champion, Gartner’s report indicated that Symbian led by a thin margin.

Nokia, the company that has the largest smartphone in consumers’ hands using Symbian, today announced they are partnering with Microsoft. There has being prior rumor that Nokia may be adopting Android, all rumors are now over. Windows Phone 7 will now be the primary platform for Nokia smartphones while also extending into many other Microsoft services such as Bing, Xbox Live and Office.

Furthermore, the two companies will combine many complementary services; for example, Nokia’s application and content store will be integrated into Microsoft Marketplace, while Nokia Maps will be – as Nokia’s press release puts it – at the heart of Bing and AdCenter.

Nokia will also undergo significant changes in operational structure and leadership. As of April 1, Nokia will have two main business units: Smart Devices, led by Jo Harlow, and Mobile Phones, led by Mary McDowell.

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Nokia recently hinted its investors might be preparing to say goodbye to its past. The insiders speculate that the Finnish mobile phone giant is planning to switch to Android. Really? Yes, on a conference call following the company’s fourth-quarter report, Stephen Elop – new Chief Executive, Nokia, discussed about the company’s need to adapt to the rapidly changing market place, and considering “multiple ecosystem patterns”.

If the rumour is correct, we may see Nokia shaking hands with Google on their Android OS. It would be the end of the company’s vision of manufacturing its own smartphone around its homemade platforms– Symbian and MeeGo.

The switch to Android seems very likely if we consider the booming figures.

Google’s smartphone platform with global smartphone vendors like HTC, Motorola and Samsung, has acquired 26% share of the global market in the third quarter of 2010.

On the contrary, Nokia’s Symbian fell to a 37% market share in that quarter, as handset vendors Sony Ericsson and Samsung concentrated on Android as their new OS platform. 

Olive is amongst the first Indian companies to offer the competitive and affordable Indian versions for officially unreleased Apple iPad and Android based devices. The Android-based OlivePad VT-100 3G tablet has been available in the Indian market at a value-friendly price of $488.

Now, the company plans to enter the vastly populated Android smart-phone segment. The company chairperson Arun Khanna expressed that a range of smart-phones based on Android 2.2 will be released by the first week of March in 2011. Even though Froyo (Android 2.2) may not be as fresh as the recently announced Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), it is still better than an array of phones that continue to run Android 2.1 (Eclair).

It is also believed that the company is aiming high and wants to compete with premium Android smart-phones like Samsung Galaxy S and Nokia.  

We wish Olive all the best!

Google officially pushed Gingerbread to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), shortly after releasing the Android 2.3 SDK. Developers at CyanogenMod immediately grabbed the opportunity and customized their ROMs based on the AOSP code.

CyanogenMod released their most stable version 6.1.1 and within few weeks, we hope to receive a stable release of CM 7. Meanwhile, few eager CM developers and enthusiasts have taken the privilege to display the unstable CM 7 with Gingerbread on variety of Android devices. Read below to find out what are in the offerings.

T-Mobile G2 (HTC Desire Z) with incomplete CyanogenMod 7 displays good functionality, except the camera/camcorder was not working, GPS was slow, Wi-Fi was buggy, and the soft keyboard was in Japanese.

HTC Desire (CDMA Version) primarily based on AOSP code, rather than on CM is smooth in functionality, however, few glitches can be seen here s well, and these include GPS radio, 3D video acceleration, video camera and Google contacts sync are not working.

Google Nexus S is perhaps the most complete CM7 version with initial usage indicating a relative stability, but being in alpha stage it still has to improve plenty.

HTC EVO 4G with CM 7 and Android 2.3 enables most of the hardware to function smoothly, but there’s no support for HDMI, 4G, lock screen animations, camcorder, MMS downloads and LED lighting. Installation of appropriate kernel for the phone is essential.

Thanks to XDA developers who have provided the following links.

Link ROM with CM7 RC 0 here.

Link Demo ROM with CM7 RC 0 here.