Smartphone shipments set to grow this year

Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% in 2009 to 164 million units, providing bright market opportunities for both handset and chip vendors in the current economy, according to a new report from market researchers Forward Concepts. Nokia and Symbian (now part of Nokia) continue to dominate the market.
With the economy expected to be on the mend in 2010, Forward Concepts forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 21.7% to the 387 million unit level in 2013.
Nokia continues to be the leader in Smartphone shipments, with an estimated 2008 market share of 34%, followed by RIM at 13%, Apple at 9.6% and Sharp at 5.7%. Sony Ericsson follows with a 5.3% market share, then HTC at 5%, Motorola at 4.6% and Samsung at 4%. 16 other Smartphone vendors constitute the other 18% share.
Currently, Japan leads in Smartphone consumption, with a 21% 2008 market share, followed by Western Europe at 18%, and North America and China, each with 17%.
Symbian continues to be the leading Smartphone operating system, with an estimated 49% unit market share in 2008, while Microsoft Windows has grown to a 14% share, and RIM with 13%. Linux and its Android implementations have reached 11%, followed by ARM's O/S X with 10%, Palm with 2% and Danger at 1%. Although Symbian is expected to remain dominant, market penetration and shares of most of the other are projected to grow.
According to Will Strauss, Forward Concepts' president and editor of the report, "Despite the slowdown in the overall mobile handset market, the strong growth for Smartphones is partly due to the uptake in mobile data which leads to higher revenue for the operators. Because of the higher data revenue that it brings, we project that higher-end feature phones will lose market share to Smartphones as a result of the narrowing spread in (subsidized) up-front net cost to the end user."

"Strong 3G mobile Internet demand will drive a long-term growth trend in the global Smartphone market with 2013 penetration levels exceeding 50% in the major operator-subsidized regions of North America and Western Europe."

said Co-author of the report, Satish Menon.

The report also forecasts the components that go into these devices, including key integrated circuits like digital basebands, RF transceivers and PA's, communication processors, application processors, graphics, multi-touch screen controllers, memories and chips for all the new functions being added to Smartphones...like camera sensors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS, Mobile TV, NFC, fingerprint sensors, accelerometers, etc.
The detailed 607-page study profiles over 80 companies and includes 64 figures and 152 tables plus appendix. It is available from Forward Concepts at: www.fwdconcepts.com/Smartphones