Android set to be number two phone OS

Market research company IDC thinks that by 2013 the Google Android operating system will be the number two operating system for smartphones.

And by then the converged mobile device market - that's IDC jargon for smartphones will be 390 million units.

But, thinks IDC, Symbian will keep the dominant position worldwide from now until then. The reason for that s that Nokia is the dominant player outside of the US.

Android, starting from a very small base of 690,000 shipped units in 2008, will reach 68 million units by 2013 - that's a CAGR of 150.4 percent.

But there's bad news for Linux and webOS - these wil decline as other handset vendors take up Android. Palm's webOS will grow but will suffer limited market share because it's not available across multiple carriers.