Latest estimates from mobile analysts IDC suggest that Google's mobile operating system, Android, will overtake both the iPhone and Blackberry operating systems by 2013. IDC estimates that it'll gain an install-base of 68 million handsets, giving it second place in the platform wars.

It's also predicted that Symbian, the open-source operating system owned by Nokia which currently dominates the world's feature phone market, will continue to dominate. IDC suggests that it'll keep the top spot from Android by virtue of its popularity outside of North America.

Meanwhile, Linux and webOS are predicted to falter. The former will lose out to Android and the latter will suffer from its Palm-only device restrictions, despite the announcement of the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Android has grown rapidly in the last 6 months since the release of the HTC Hero, arguably the first superstar handset to feature the platform. Since then, there's been successes with the Motorola Droid (Milestone in Europe) and Google's own Nexus One handset. However, if HTC's leaked 2010 roadmap is accurate, this year could be even more interesting for the little robot that could.

Via: electronista.com

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