‘Perfect storm’ of growth coming for smartphones in ’10
Friday, May 7, 2010 11:15Smartphones such as the iPhone are in “high-growth mode” globally, IDC said today, with shipments by manufacturers growing nearly 57 percent in the first quarter.
“2010 looks to be another year of large-scale consumer adoption of [smartphones]” IDC analyst Ramon Llamas predicted, based on the trend in smartphone shipments. And updates expected this year for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile are likely to spark even greater demand, he said.
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A fourth generation iPhone is also expected this summer, IDC noted. Apple has announced its Worldwide Developers Conference will begin June 7 , the likely date for the company to unveil its next-generation iPhone.
Apple had the biggest increase for the first quarter of any of the smartphone makers, shipping 8.8 million iPhones globally, up 132 percent from the 3.8 million shipped in the first quarter of 2009, IDC said. Part of that increase was due to the iPhone’s arrival in areas of the world outside of North America.
Apple shipped the third-highest volume of smartphones in the quarter behind Nokia, with 21.5 million and Research in Motion Ltd., maker of BlackBerry, with 10.6 million.
Following Apple was HTC, with 2.6 million phones shipped, and Motorola, in fifth place, with 2.3 million shipped.
Overall, 54.7 million smartphones shipped globally in the first quarter, up 56.7 percent from the year-ago quarter when 34.9 million shipped. The 2010 numbers include smartphones chipped by the top five companies and 8.9 million shipped by a variety of smaller manufacturers.
IDC noted that while smartphones are still a minority of all mobile phones sold, smartphone shipments (and probable sales) are outpacing the rate of all mobile phone sales. In the first quarter, smartphones accounted for nearly 19 percent of mobile phones shipped, up from about 14 percent a year earlier. However, the 57 percent increase in shipments for this year’s first quarter was more than double the 21.7 percent increase for all mobile phone shipments .
