Windows Phone 7 to be #2 Smartphone OS by 2015?

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Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft was big news, and with WP7 currently being the underdog in the smartphone industry, it might be nice to root for them once in a while. But can WP7 beat iPhone’s market share in a few years?

Granted, Android will be #1 by that time, as a recent IDC research says. However, the same study predicts that Windows Phone 7 will be the #2 smartphone operating system by 2015.

The new alliance brings together Nokia’s hardware capabilities and Windows Phone’s differentiated platform. We expect the first devices to launch in 2012. By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android.

It seems that both Nokia and Microsoft are heavily banking on their partnership in order to boost sales of both Nokia products and Windows Phone 7 smartphones. By 2015, IDC says Android will have a 45% market share, while WP7 will have 20.9%. Meanwhile, iOS and Blackberry will have 15.3% and 13.7%, respectively.

Will WP7 make such a coup? Time will tell. After all, in 2007, Android was a virtual unknown. Now, it’s the smartphone world’s fastest rising star.