Smartphone growth leads the way in weakening mobile market

Stan Beer
Monday, 02 February 2009 06:52

IT Industry - Market

As the economy took its toll on the mobile handset market in the last quarter of 2008, it is becoming increasingly clear that smartphones are moving into the mainstream led by Blackberry and iPhone, according to a new report.

According to an ABI Research report, with 171 million smartphones sold globally in 2008, the high end devices captured more than 14% of the 1.21 billion handset market in 2008. Meanwhile, a devastating last quarter of the year sounded an ominous warning that the overall market could suffer a contraction in 2009.

Like other surveys of the market, ABI Research found that 2008 was a year of two halves - the year started out with a bang and ended with a bust

In the first half, mobile handset shipments happily chugged along at 14% year on uear growth. In the second half, 3Q handset shipments slowed to 8% before crashing into the Red in 4Q with -10%.

"Sheer fear sapped the confidence of consumers, enterprises and corporate users across the board," says Jake Saunders, Asia-Pacific Vice-President of ABI Research.

"As a result, 2008 signed out the year with 1.21 billion handsets shipped for an annual growth of 5.4%. Just a year ago we had +16%."

According to ABI Research, among the mobile handset vendors there were winners and losers but the most impressive performances came from two smartphone players RIM (Blackberry) and Apple (iPhone).

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