The market for smartphones will grow from around 10% of the total handset market in 2007 to 31% of the market in 2013 according to ABI Research.
On the ground of this estimate, the number of smartphones sold in 2013 could be over 500 millions units, nearly one handset out of three. The global mobile terminal market size for 2007 is estimated around 1140 million units and is anticipated to reach 1 430 million units in 2011 by IDATE consultants, with a CAGR declining from 8.42% in 2006. It is to be noticed that the extra number of handset sold in 2013 matches the smartphone sales figures.
ABI Research explains smartphone hype by different factors, including carriers’ drives to grow data revenues from advanced services and the general trend to pushing “smart” operating systems down into middle tier devices. The market is currently dominated by Nokia (52%) and Symbian (65%).
