Android predicted to outsell iPhone by 2012

Only yesterday we were musing on Roger McNamee's assertion that the Palm Pre will completely destroy the iPhone within a month of its release, which caused us to raise a sceptical eyebrow as to McNamee's awareness of the smartphone market. And reality.

But another report has just surfaced over at MocoNews, which, although a little one sided, is far better grounded in reality. It suggests that Google's Android - along with other open source systems - will ultimately prove far more sustainable than a proprietary system such as the iPhone.

It focuses on the Symbian platform, which enjoyed 49 per cent of the smartphone market last year, down from 65 per cent the year before. This decline is pretty much down to the iPhone, though Symbian's switch to open source promises to put it right back on top, according to the report.

This would be a very easy set of circumstances to believe if it weren't for the prolific popularity of the iPhone, though the concept is ultimately sound.

Open source platforms have invariably been supported by the community even after the original manufacturers have abandoned them, which bodes very well for the new strain of smartphone that adopts this community-built approach from the start.