"However, some vendors, notably HP and RIM, are choosing to invest in their own software platforms," he said.

"Ovum's belief is that the platform dominance of Apple and Google will continue through 2011 and beyond, albeit with devices based on Google's software platform commanding an increasing proportion of the total market opportunity".

"However, devices based on Google's platforms will only overtake those based on Apple's platform by 2015, when we forecast 36 per cent and 35 per cent market shares respectively, of a total market with shipments of about 150 million units in 2015," Leach said.

This compares with Ovum's estimate of 10 per cent for Google and 90 per cent for Apple at the end of 2010.