In an era in which most financial and sales projections have turned out disappointing, research firm IDC (News - Alert) has some good news: IDC has upgraded its projections for the sales of smart phones in 2010. The firm said today that global shipments of smart phone will see an increase of 55 percent in 2010 compared to 2009. The figure is 10 percent higher than what the research firm projected earlier this year.
The jump, according to IDC, is due to the launch of several sexy new models of smart phones: most notably, iPhone (News - Alert) 4, the BlackBerry Torch, the Evo 4G and several new models of Android that are to debut this fall.
"The smartphone is the catalyst behind the rebound in the worldwide mobile phone market this year," said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. “Additional product introductions and an expected flurry of smart phone buying activity in the second half of the year will push the market well above previous expectations.”
IDC also estimated that the overall cell phone market will show growth closer to 14.1 percent; an estimate that has been revised from its previous estimate of 12.6 percent.
In terms of market share, IDC predicts that Google’s (News - Alert) Android will top Apple's iOS to become the third-most pervasive mobile operating system: 16.3 percent the smart phones shipped worldwide in 2010 will be Android. By 2014, according to IDC, Android will be second only to Symbian (News - Alert) among smart phone platforms, with a 24.6 percent share in the market. The analyst firm expects that with the upcoming launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft may pick up some of its declining market share in coming years and claim a 9.8 percent share of the market.
The study predicted continuing healthy competition in the smart phone market in the future, with no one company completely dominating. "Shorter replacement cycles and an ample feature phone to smartphone upgrade opportunity means the smartphone OS market will remain fragmented but healthy for the foreseeable future," said Restivo.
Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Erin Monda
