Linux Will Dominate the Non-Smartphone Mobile Market by 2015

Move over Windows, Linux may dominate the non-smartphone market by 2015. A study by ABI Research indicates that Linux will be the operating system of choice for 62% of non-smartphone mobile devices by 2015, thanks in part to the success of Google's Android platform and upcoming Chrome Operating systems.

In a press release, senior analyst for ABI Victoria Fodale said "The number of Linux-oriented initiatives recently seen in the mobile industry indicates that Linux will be a key technology in the next generation of netbooks, media tablets, and other mobile devices,"

Given the dramatic growth of the Android operating system alone those numbers aren't surprising. The Android market has grown more than 44 percent from February to May of this year, according to comScore, and new Android smartphones are literally flying off the shelves.

Just this week Velocity Micro announced a new $299 Cruz tablet running the Android operating system. LG has also recently announced it has an Android tablet in the works, and Cisco has plans to launch its own Android tablet, the Cius, next year.

With iPad prices starting at $600 for a Wi-Fi only version, it's understandable from even just a money standpoint that someone would opt for a less expensive Android tablet instead. Android is also an open platform, allowing developers to instantly make their apps available. All of the apps available for the iPad have to first be approved by Apple, while that process does ensure some small level of quality/safety with those apps, it also keeps out developers who could offer useful applications to the iPad/Apple market.

The Android app market is growing by leaps and bounds. The Android marketplace currently boasts more than 70,000 different applications and those applications have been downloaded more than a billion times, that's pretty amazing. As more and more devices enter the marketplace those numbers are also just going to grow.

In it's quarterly earnings call this week Google said it was activating 160,000 new Android handsets everyday, so the number of Android devices even on the smartphone side of this is expanding quite rapidly. I'm a huge Apple fangirl, but I could definitely see myself picking up an Android tablet (or even an Android handset) if the price and feature list were right.

What about you? Do you own an iPhone/iPad? Would you consider switching to a Linux-based handset or tablet? If you're already using a Linux device, what made you make that choice?