According to Berg Insight, 40 million high-end smartphones equipped with quad-core application processors were globally shipped in 2012.
Total smartphone sales witnessed a 47 per cent increase, to 690 million units in 2012, compared to 470 million units in the previous year.
High-end smartphones with unsubsidised retail prices above ? 400 and low-cost devices priced at close to ? 100 and below accounted for most of the growth in the smartphone category in 2012. Sales of high-end devices increased from about 150 million units in 2011 to an estimated 250 million units in 2012.
Going forward, low-cost smartphones priced at below ? 100, followed by mid-range handsets, will account for a majority of the growth.
Smartphones with dual-core application processors were first introduced in early 2011, offering more than double the computing power of the previous generation high-end smartphones. Sales of dual-core smartphones accelerated in 2012, reaching an estimated 250 million units, compared to 70 million units in 2011. The first handsets with quad-core processors were launched in early 2012. A wide range of standalone application processors and system-on-chips (SoCs) that integrate application processors and cellular basebands are available to address different price points in the smartphone category. This, as per the firm, will offer more choice to consumers, while product marketing becomes more challenging for handset vendors.
Berg Insight expects that nearly all of the 1.5 billion smartphones sold in 2017 will be equipped with at least dual-core processors and the majority will feature quad-core processors.
