Handset market updates

According to a recent study, in four years 30% of all handsets shipped will be smartphones; that is 452 million smartphones in 2012. We're already seeing this trend on the gsmExchange trading floor. Check out "What's Hot" and you'll see some of the most popular phones are now smartphones. A few market trends are contributing to the surge in the smartphone market.

As smartphone prices come down, more and more consumers are buying them. While we're still seeing high-end smartphone launches regularly, like Sony Ericcson's Xperia X1 and the Blackberry Storm, we're also seeing lower-priced smartphones gaining strength in the market. The 3G iPhone is now the number one selling phone in the United States, with reduced prices driving sales amongst lower-income users in surprising numbers. Also in the US, AT&T Mobility began selling Nokia's 6650 smartphone to consumers last week for $70.

Smartphone users are becoming more engaged with and reliant upon application features offered by companies like Apple, RIM and Google in their apps shops. At least 200 million apps have been downloaded since the Apple app store opened in July 2008. The Android marketplace, launched just last month, may have already clocked 3 million downloads, with the average user downloading 14 apps. Nokia's Comes with Music service is another example of a smartphone manufacturer tying services to their products. It seems there is now no looking back for any of the manufacturers.

While Europe has been the stronghold of the 3G smartphone market, the market share of 3G devices in the United States is growing faster and has surpassed European levels, increasing from 16.7% in 2007 to 28.4% in June 2008. With 3G device ownership in both regions hovering just below 30% and increasing, it's clear users are on board.

We're sure that smartphones are the future. Are you?

---