Research firm Ovum has said that “developers are the real winners” from forecasted growth in sales of devices with “lite” operating systems, including tablet computers and other internet devices. The company notes that the platforms used in these devices, which are optimised for light computing applications, are “in most cases derived from smartphone rather than PC thinking and frequently share common underpinnings with them.” This will prove appealing to developers, both by increasing the installed base of devices they are targeting, and by enabling the re-use of skills and assets acquired when developing for other form factors.

According to the company, “from essentially a standing start” in 2010, Ovum expects shipments of tablets and other mobile Internet devices using “lite” OS’ to reach 14.2 million by the end of the year, climbing to 150.1 million in calendar 2015. This equates to a compound annual growth rate of 60.4 percent across the period.

Currently, 90 percent of the “lite” OS market is held by Apple, due to the success of its iPad device, with the remainder primarily made up of devices powered by Android. In the long term, Ovum forecasts that Google’s OS will be dominant (Android and Chrome), although the company will only overtake Apple in 2015, and then only by 1 percentage point. At this time, 36 percent of the market will be Google-powered, 35 percent Apple, and the remaining 29 percent will be split across platforms including BlackBerry Tablet OS, webOS, MeeGo, and a Microsoft platform – Ovum “expects [Microsoft] to enter the market for tablet and other mobile Internet devices during 2011.”