According to new projections from ABI Research, smartphones accounted for 14 percent of all mobile devices shipped globally in 2008, and will increase to over 17 percent this year, Macworld reports.
That’s true even as the total number of handset shipments declines in the face of a downward economy—from 1.21 billion in 2008 to a projected 1.17 billion in 2009, a drop of 2.5 percent, the report said.
Still, the signs are that consumers may be getting frustrated with newer, more complex cell phones overall. “We’re seeing that people already have in their possession capable phones with color screens and more, and it may be that they already have the phone they are happy with,” ABI analyst Kevin Burden said in the report. “So the bad economy becomes an excuse not to get a more sophisticated phone. It’s a question of simplicity and of getting a mobile phone with features beyond their capability to use.”
The increase in smartphone shipments may be a reflection of the “early-adopter” effect, since smartphones only began selling in earnest relatively recently, Burden said in the article.
Microsoft is planning a major announcement at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month; many expect the company to announce the next version of Windows Mobile. Here in the states, Todd Peters, the vice president of marketing for the Windows Mobile division, hinted at CES last week as to what to expect.
