According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors will ship about 1.8 billion mobile phones in 2012 compared to 1.7 billion units of mobile phones shipped in 2011.
According to IDC the worldwide mobile phone market is forecast to grow more than 4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2012, the lowest annual growth rate since 2009, due to a sharp decline in the feature phone market and slowdown in global economic conditions. The slow growth in the overall mobile phone market is primarily due to the projected 10 per cent decline in feature phone shipments in 2012. Despite the decline in shipments of feature phones, the feature phones will still comprise 61.6 per cent of the total mobile phone market this year.
In comparison, the smartphone market will largely offset the feature phone decline with shipments forecast to grow 38.8 per cent y-o-y to 686 million units this year. The high demand for smartphones is being driven by high carrier subsidies, falling average selling prices and component costs, increased awareness and device diversity, and lower cost data plans.
IDC projects that Android will remain the most shipped smartphone operating system till 2016. Increasingly, Android?s share and growth will be driven by Samsung sales. This Android stratification will happen even as more devices powered by Google?s mobile OS from a wide variety of phone makers enter the market.
According to IDC iOS will continue to grow with demand for iPhone 4S in North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile will also gain market share. IDC expects it to be the number 2 OS with more than 19 per cent share in 2016.
