There will continue to be a market for BlackBerry OS powered devices, despite Research In Motion's current woes. This is true in emerging markets, for example, where users are looking for affordable messaging devices. However, the gulf between the BlackBerry OS and its primary competition will widen over the forecast as the mobile phone market becomes increasingly software/app oriented and the "bring your own device" enterprise trend proliferates.

The death knell of Symbian as a widely used smartphone OS was sounded last year when Nokia said all of its smartphones would eventually be powered by Windows Phone OS. This announcement precipitated an Osborne like effect that resulted in a sharp decline in Symbian's market share. It also led to share gains for competitive operating systems, namely Android and iOS. IDC expects Symbian powered smartphone shipments to all but cease by 2014. Clearly, Nokia and Microsoft need to quickly switch Symbian OS user allegiances to Windows Phone 7 in order to maintain relevancy in the smartphone race.