Mobile Phone Shipments Will Fall In 2009, SmartPhone Demand Continues to Grow

IDC predicts worldwide mobile phone shipments will fall 8.3% in 2009 (Cellular News). Q4 08 shipments fell 11.6%, marking the first time the holiday quarter has not recorded double digit growth in seven years.
IDC also scaled back the outlook for smartphones as a result of the industry's changing dynamics, reducing from previously stated 8.7% to 3.4% growth.
It is expected, however, that in the coming years the industry will migrate toward the converged device segment and this segment will maintain positive growth in 2009. The explosive success of Apple's iPhone and the App Store have significantly affected demand for smartphones and are defining new industry trends, with other companies including Nokia, Verizon, RIM, Microsoft launching their own mobile application stores this year.
A March ChangeWave survey of 4,292 cell phone owners confirmed a shift to smartphones, with Apple and RIM in a close race for market leadership while their competitors continue to suffer the effects of the economic downturn (Cellular News).
A 3.4% growth for the smartphone segment when the rest of the industry is experiencing negative growth is a clear indication that smartphones and mobile applications will continue to drive industry growth in the coming years.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VAS Latin America: hits and misses of 2008

Image
As the year comes to an end, it's a good idea to reflect on the past and learn from our experience, good or bad. With this in mind, I compiled a list of the good, the bad and the really bad news and analysis from the mobile industry in Latin America that I blogged about during 2008, with some additional comments and reflections. Enjoy! The good!!!! America Movil launches the iPhone - after much speculation and anticipation, America Movil formally announced in early May that they were selected to distribute the iPhone in Latin America. America Movil's VAS team moved quickly and successfully launched exactly one year after the iPhone was first launched in the USA by AT&T. Why is this GOOD? This was a complex deployment that was done with a very tight schedule. The successful launch of the iPhone in Latin America was possible thanks to a strong team; Corporate VAS in Mexico, together with local VAS Managers and Operations Managers in the region showed that they have wha...
Read more

MobilePedia: World Class Mobile Marketing from Latin America

Image
This week I attended the 2009 Latin America Mobile VAS Forum in Miami (June 8-10), with the participation of analysts, technology vendors and operators. The global economic downturn is, not suprisingly, on everyone's mind. This topic kept coming up repeatedly and the attendance to the event, about half of what we saw in previous years is also an indicator of the tough times we face. However, it was encouraging to interact with technology vendors and operators who remain optimistic about the future. In the next weeks I will add more posts about this meeting and the discussions I had both with operators and technology vendors. This week, I want to share my thoughts on a presentation by Marcelo Castelo of the Brazilian Agency F.biz. Marcelo's presentation, titled "The Mobile as a Mass Media Channel With Internet Characteristics: The Possibilities of the Mobile Marketing" focused on case studies in mobile marketing from Latin America. The case studies shared by Marcelo s...
Read more

The time has come, to talk of many things: SMS 2.0, Personal IM and Instant SMS

Image
The time has come for SMS 2.0? In the last three years, we have seen vendors introduce new messaging solutions, all claiming to be the next step in SMS evolution. Presence enabled services have received a lot of attention but have limited traction in the mobile market. IM, by no means a new service, has been one of the most successful services but still far behind the penetration SMS has. SMS reached a mature stage years ago, its growth rate has flattened and it has kept the same form and functionality since it was first introduced. However, it remains one the top revenue generator for mobile operators. So what do you do for an encore? Cellular News published an interesting note on February 2nd: "­Acision has announced that Russian mobile operator, MTS is using its Instant Messaging solution to offer an enhanced messaging experience to its subscribers. Combining the Acision Person to Person Gateway with core elements from Colibria's product portfolio - including the Instant M...
Read more