Not quite what we here would have expected. I imagine they use current trend to determine where things will go. Most trending does not consider stuff to grow exponentially. Just linear (thank you The Black Swan). All things considering, many phones STILL run Symbian, so, it is no shock that Gartner would see it as number 1 in a few years. Since they title it as only MOBILE OS and not smart phone, they are perhaps right. But, get with the times. The future is not just mobile phones, i mean, that was SO 10 years ago. The future is mobile computing. And, when it comes to crunching numbers on the go, Symbian just does not cut it. I mean, ask Nokia, what is there take on it... (http://www.droidarms.com/post/Nokia-ditching-Symbian-for-Maemo-German-FT-reports.aspx).

The focus for the future is smart phones, netbooks or other small, portable/ultra mobile computing devices. In time, we should see amazing innovations around integrating these experiences together.

http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/10/14/analysts-at-gartner-predict-the-top-mobile-os-for-2012/

Until then...