The dominance Apple has enjoyed for so long in the app store market will gradually be eroded over the next five years, according to Ovum.
Apple generated a massive 67% of smartphone app downloads last year – compared to just 14% of the installed smartphone base. But the company looks set to be overtaken by Google's Android by 2015, Ovum has forecast in a recent report.
By then, Android's share of the app store market will have grown from the current 14% to 26%, compared to Apple's 22%, the research firm has predicted.
And the Symbian platform is expected to be nipping at Apple's heels with a 19% share. Currently Symbian has 49% share of the mobile phone OS, but accounts for just 9% of downloads.
Even RIM's BlackBerry, which is set to lose smartphone share over the forecast period, will more than triple its share of the app download market from 5% to 17%.
“The iPhone generates the lion’s share of smartphone app downloads but over the period we will see the share of application downloads becoming more equally distributed,” Ovum principal analyst Michele Mackenzie said.