Smartphone Update
2009 Was a challenging year around the world, but smartphones were a bright spot in the sector. The following are highlights from analysis by researcher, Gartner.
"Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market and we remain confident about the potentiol for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in 2010," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner.
According to Gartner, Nokia's share of the worldwide smartphone market research an all time low in the third quarter of 2009 at 39%, compared with 45% in the second quarter of 2009. This decline caused Symbian to lose ground too, while Research In Motion reached 20% share, its highest yet.
Apple's worldwide smartphone share reached 17% as iPhone sales totalled 7 million units in the third quarter of 2009 following the continued rollout of the iPhone 3GS in new countries.
In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android picked up momentum but with only a handful of such devices available, its share remained modest at 3.5%. Verizon helped drive sales in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2009, with European and Asian markets expected to chime in over the first half of 2010.
"Mobile phone vendors must invest in their smartphone portfolios to benefit from the fast-growing segment of the market and that which is most resistant to low average selling prices", Ms Milanesi said.
Even though final data hasn't ome in yet, Gartner forecasts that smartphone volumes will represent 14% of total mobile device sales in 2009, growing by 23.6% from 2008 and to 38% by 2013.
Overall, Gartner beleives the mobile market rebounded in the last few monts, back to a 2008 volume level.
They say that stronger than expected sales in Western Europe and an acceleration in the grey market in the third quarter of this year will drive worldwide mobile device sales to end users to a level of 1.214 billion units, only a 0.67% decline from 2008.
