Chart: Worldwide mobile OS market shares 2010-2015 by Gartner.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 percent increase from 2010, according to new Gartner research.

The firm predicts that growth will be driven by Android phones – which it forecast will account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012 and will be instrumental in driving down device prices.

“As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers”, said Gartner’s Roberta Cozza.

 “Android's position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

Gartner added that ‘open OS’ platforms (defined as those that release SDKs for developers) will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile devices market.

Gartner believes that Apple’s iOS will remain the second-largest platform worldwide through 2014 despite its share decreasing slightly after 2011, reflecting what the firm sees as a strategy by the iPhone-maker to maintain margins rather than pursue market share.

Elsewhere, Gartner predicts that Nokia will push Microsoft’s Windows Phone “well into the mid-tier of its portfolio” by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in the worldwide ranking by 2013.