Beijing, on the morning of August 30th, news from Phage Display: The U.S. market research firm iSuppli expects that smartphone shipments will grow from 478 million this year to reach 1.03 billion in 2015, surpassing feature phones. The smartphone's market share during the same period will increase from 32.5% this year to 54.4%, compared with only 15.8% in 2009.
iSuppli said that while functional mobile phone markets continue to hold the majority share, smartphones are rapidly catching up, especially in the fastest-growing low-end smartphone segment. Texas-based analyst Francis (Francis Sideco) said: "Users' demand is driving growth." The company expects that the low-end smartphones' compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2015 will reach 115.4%, while the high-end smartphone market will only see a growth of 16.4%.
Seediq said: "Cost reduction has made entry-level smartphones highly attractive to a large number of basic users." Samsung's mobile phone growth was among the highest in the second quarter among manufacturers, with shipment growth reaching 600%, primarily driven by demand for low-end smartphones in the Chinese and Latin American markets.
Nevertheless, mobile applications are also an important factor driving the popularity of smartphones. Seediq said:
The U.S. market research firm Gartner's vice president of networking and communications, Michael Disa Bator (Michael Disabato), also agrees with iSuppli's overall forecast. He also believes that smartphones will surpass feature phones in popularity over the next few years.
He added: Laptop users are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices for business.