Android’s unprecedented rise up the list of leading smartphone operating systems has been well documented, with most analysts predicting out-and-out domination of Apple’s iOS within just a couple of years. Now, at least one forecaster projects that Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 OS will also pass the iPhone before too long.

IDC predicts that Windows Phone 7 will power 20.9 percent of all smartphones by 2015, compared to 15.3 percent for Apple – placing Microsoft second behind Google’s Android, which it predicts will dominate the market with 45.4 percent. Today, Windows 7 holds just 5.5 percent of the smartphone market share, well behind iOS, Android, BlackBerry (13.7 percent in 2015) and Symbian (0.2 percent in 2015).