According to a latest update, Microsoft’s Windows Phone will pass Apple’s iOS to become the number two smartphones operating system in 2016.

It is forecasted that the iPhone's worldwide market share will drop from over 20 percent in 2012 to 19 percent by 2016. On the other hand, Windows Phone's share will jump from over 5 percent in 2012 to over 19 percent in 2016. As far as Google’s Android is concerned, it will retain its top slot in smartphone OS, though it will see a drop from its current 61 percent lead to 52.9 percent market share.

Latest stats revealed, in Q1 2012, Windows Phone had posted a mere 2.2 percent market share in smartphone shipments, which is significantly behind BlackBerry’s over 9 percent share. 

As far as device makers are concerned, Nokia is seen as strong in emerging markets for Windows Phone and Samsung-made devices are likely to dominate Android smartphone market.  

As per a latest report, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is also getting significantly popular among mobile app developers. Presently, Microsoft has 100,145 applications in the Windows Phone marketplace. It is worth noticing, Microsoft's mobile app store has reached this key point in just 20 months. It added 9,391 apps in the last month, and 26,493 in the last three months. 

However, nothing can be said at this time. Let time decide it. Till then, stay tuned.