The Smartphone Operating Systems market is bracing itself to welcome new players, with Android and iOS expected to lose at least 13% of their dominance by 2018 to these new players.

This is according to a new report dubbed “Smartphone Futures: Differentiation Strategies & Emerging Opportunities 2013-2018”, released yesterday by tech research firm, Juniper Research.

The report states that Asha, Sailfish and emerging HTML 5 based OS players will eat into the current Smartphone OS market, taking away important niches, something they will achieve by focusing on cost innovation and utilizing local knowledge in partnership with the next generation customers.

The report was however quick to state that Android and iOS will still be the dominant players, with Samsung and Apple maintaining high numbers of shipments in the world.

According to the report’s projections, the two companies will ship 17% more Smartphones in 2018 than what was shipped by all global vendors in 2012.

“Apple and Samsung’s global Smartphone shipments will hit nearly 800 million by the end of 2018, compared with 677 million last year,” stated the report.

The cost of Smartphones is also expected to drop, as companies shift towards manufacturing heavily localized handsets that will carter for specific niche markets, especially in the lower income demographics.

Interesting though was the projection that Apple will have a sustained growth in the coming years, despite the assumption that iOS will lose a significant share of the Smartphone OS market. The report justified this forecast stating that Apple’s expected diversification in its product portfolio will bring its model closer to that of Samsung, something that will allow it to cater for more users.

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