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Smartphone platform wars: It's an iOS, Android world and stinks to be 'other'

The sad reality in smartphone land for RIM and Microsoft today boils down to this: It's an Android and iOS world. You just live in it.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Smartphones are now half of all mobile phones in the U.S. and it's an Android and Apple iOS dominated world, according to Nielsen data. Here's an ode to the rest of the crowd and the tough position they're in.

Nielsen's info graphic tells the tale:

Among recent smartphone acquirers Android and iOS dominate. Android has 48 percent of the market and iOS has 43 percent. Simply put it really sucks to be "other."

Here's a look at the little slivers in that graphic above.

RIM BlackBerry. Among three month acquirers, RIM only garnered 5 percent of smartphone OS share. That performance is likely to be reflected in RIM's earnings later today. Analysts expect a poor outlook all the way around. The challenge for RIM will be to hold share ahead of its superphone launches.

Windows Phone 7. We're assuming "other"---all 4 percent of recent acquirers---is dominated by Microsoft's Windows Phone. AT&T, Nokia and Microsoft are spending big bucks to make the Lumia 900 a hero phone. If Nokia's entry to the U.S. flops it will be more "other" for Microsoft.

The sad reality in smartphone land today boils down to this: It's an Android and iOS world. You just live in it.

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