According to a new study from ABI Research, the number of cell phone shipped worldwide in the first three months of this year fell 12 percent from the same period a year ago–and 20 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, MediaPost reports–mainly due to the global recession.
“The industry and consumers have gone into protection mode,” said ABI Research Practice Director Kevin Burden in a statement. The report added that vendors are beginning to produce fewer handsets, now that customers are delaying upgrades until the economy stabilizes.
Latin America saw the biggest drop of 28 percent, while the Asia/Pacific region was off just 8 percent, the report said. Smartphones continue to be the lone bright spot, as Gartner reported last month that sales of smart devices increased over 12 percent even as overall cell phone sales dropped. Credit huge, news-making device launches like the iPhone 3G, the Palm Pre, the BlackBerry Storm, and the T-Mobile G1 for that sort of thing.
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