More sub-$50 handsets coming next year
By Dusan Belic on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 2:48 PM PST In Devices, Research
More than a dozen handset vendors will be shipping sub-$50 models till the end of the next year. Furthermore by 2011, almost 25% of all handsets shipped globally will be an ultra low cost handset. And we’re talking about smartphones… 
While the ultra low cost handset marketplace is currently dominated by Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK), other handset manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) are showing increasing interest as well. However, the problem is that the “big boys” have solid intellectual property portfolios — which they can additionally cross-license — hence they can jump into low-margin markets and still make a buck.
Naturally, the biggest growth for the low-end handsets is coming from China and India. ABI Research finds the latter market very interesting, even stating that in the next five years – India’s handset market will be growing from a little over 9 million handsets in 2006 to more than 116 million handsets in 2011.
[Via: slashphone]
