Pyramid Research predicts the Windows Phone establish itself as the smartphone OS market leader as early as 2013, partly thanks to Microsoft's alliance with Nokia, which should show its true force by that very year.
The reasoning goes that Nokia, while currently appearing to suffer losses through its dragging on with Symbian, is also strong enough to take a beating-- as well as smart enough to learn from both Symbian and Android's (not to mention iOS') successes and failures.
Thus, when Nokia finally releases its WP7 models it will do so with enough confidence to jump start a new era for the OS.
Android's growth is also set to start slowing down (compared to the 2010 - 2012 period).
Meanwhile RIM and Apple's insistence on closing their operating systems anything but their own hardware will result in their own losing out to the larger manufacturers (such as Samsung and LG), who have the luxury to benefit from the economies of scale.
The analyst says its forecast model takes 51 different countries into account-- including a large number of emerging market which it says will drive and determine market growth in the next 5 years.