The first dual-core processor phones are already on the way and it seems as if multicore phones will be about as common in 2015 as multicore PCs today.
Strategy Analytics estimates that 15% of all smartphone shipped this year will have a multicore processor. By 2015, the penetration will increase to 45% The most popular CPUs will be based on ARM Cortex-A9, A5 and A15 chips as well as Intel's x86 CPUs, Strategy Analytics predicts. “We estimate Samsung will lead the smartphone multi-core applications processor market in 2011, followed by Qualcomm, Nvidia, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments,” said Stuart Robinson, Director of the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service.
Plenty of dual-core smartphone have been announced already - the LG Optimus 2x, the Motorola Atrix and Bionic and there is good reason to believe that the iPhone will go dual-core this year as well. Let's also remember that Microsoft said that a 1 GHz single-core CPU is a minimum requirement for a Windows Phone 7 device, so there is incentive to move to multicore rather sooner than later.