Samsung Electronics, the world’s No. 5 smartphone manufacturer, plans to discard the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system to increase phones on the Android platform and with its own smartphone operating system.

Among the 40 kinds of Samsung smartphones that will be released next year, the portion of Windows Phones will be around 50%, down from 90% in 2008, and Android-based smartphones will be around 30%, or over 10 kinds of models, according to a recent report by HMC Investment Securities, a Seoul-based brokerage firm. Samsung expects to discard the Symbian OS from 2011 and reduce the portion of Windows Phones to 20% in 2012.
In an effort to escape from dependency on other smartphone OSs, Samsung has its own smartphone operating system, however the main hurdle is who will develop applications for the Samsung OS, said Greg Noh, a HMC Investment Securities analyst.
Regarding cost-effective aspects of the smartphone business, Samsung is superior to other competitors in sourcing core components such as NANDs, application processors, and camera modules, HMC said. To boost competitive leverage in the smartphone sector, Samsung will increase its R&D investment and marketing efforts.

Samsung’s smartphone shipments this year is estimated at around 9 million units, up 89% over the previous year, and 21 million units are expected for 2010, up  132% from this year, making Samsung rank 4th as a smartphone maker for the first time, HMC said.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics is also expected to increase Android-based smartphones as selected by its main customer Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 mobile operator in the U.S. as they preferred the Android platform over Windows Phones for their smartphone OS. Based on its competitive strength in multimedia phones, LG may catch the fast-growing smartphone market, HMC said. LG’s smartphone shipments will reach 4.2 million units in 2010, four-times higher than this year.

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