Smart phones up, dumb phones down

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 21 May 2009 05:07

Your IT - Mobility

First-quarter figures from a leading analyst firm show sales of smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry have increased while total handset sales have dropped.

According to figures from Gartner, smartphone sales rose to 36.4 million in the first quarter of 2009, up from 32.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

"Much of the smartphone growth during the first quarter of 2009 was driven by touchscreen products, both in midtier and high-end devices," said principal analyst Roberta Cozza.

"Touch for the sake of touch’ was enough of a driver in the midtier space, but tighter integration with applications and services around music, mobile e-mail, and Internet browsing made the difference at the high end of the market."

The big names in smartphones - Nokia, RIM, Apple, HTC and Fujitsu - all recorded an increase in sales volume during the quarter.

Although Nokia remains at the top of the pile, its smartphone market share slipped from 45.1 to 41.2 percent.

RIM and Apple showed strong gains, up from 13.3 to 19.9 percent and 5.3 to 10.8 percent respectively.

Gartner only counts HTC's own-brand sales, which underestimates the company's true position.

What about the overall handset market? You'll find the numbers on page 2.