LONDON, UK: The recent raft of announcements made by the LiMo Foundation and the Open Handset Alliance indicate that incumbent smartphone OS software vendors will soon face a serious challenge, deriving from two technically competent and coalesced Linux consortia.

The LiMo foundation announcement of support from another major carrier in the form of Verizon, as well as the growing support for Android in the form of numerous global application developers coding innovative applications for the platform, categorically proves these are not a flash in the pan as many incumbents would have you believe.

ABI Research vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw said, "By 2013, we expect that Linux will take 23 percent of the smartphone market and will be the second most prevalent solution behind Symbian. And although LiMo and Android will take the lion's share of the market for Linux solutions, there will be opportunities for solutions such as Maemo which will be facilitated by the encroachment of the MID (Mobile Internet Device) form factor into the mobile devices landscape."

In a recent report, ABI Research found that Nokia's poor position in the Americas resulted in a 2007 share of only 4 percent for Symbian in the American smartphone market. It is imperative that Symbian looks to grow its share of the North American market by gaining more traction from other handset vendors that are performing well there. Otherwise, the company could face a situation whereby its leadership in the European markets is challenged by a combination of a resurgent Windows and emerging Linux, while simultaneously being locked out of the North American market.

Smartphone and OS Markets provides a thorough overview of the smartphone market, concentrating on key developments in both device feature set expansion and the evolving software landscape. The report covers important topics including specific features and technologies that enhance the user interface, in addition to the encroachment of open source software into the smartphone domain.

ABI Research is a leading market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets.