Holiday Gift Guide »

Informa: Online handset sales to triple in the five years to 2012

Categories: Research
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 11:42 AM

The results of new Informa’s survey indicate online mobile phone sales will surge to 21% of total devices sales by 2012. According to Angela Stainthorpe, Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, online retail for wireless is certainly only a nascent market but the tentative steps taken in 2007 will quickly become more confident. “As broadband penetration increases and online shopping entrenches its place in the retail landscape, customer expectation and the cost benefits of online distribution will be difficult for the mobile industry to ignore,” she added.

Informa reportInforma Telecoms & Media forecasts the online handset retail market in 2012 to be worth over double its 2007 level. Europe will lead the online market, accounting for 47% of global online handset sales revenues in 2012. North America will hold onto its second place, while Asia Pacific will see a four-fold increase.

The report concludes that total handset retail revenues through all channels will reach US$180.9 billion by 2012, up 23% on 2007.

Interesting thing to note is that in the coming years vendors will take a more active role in the marketing and sales of their products, causing a loss of market share for the operators, which as a result, will end 2012 with 25% of total handset retail revenues…

As always, more information is available on Informa’s website.

SPONSORED MESSAGE
Get free domestic and international calls and texts to anyone with the Vonage Mobile app available as an iPhone calling app or Android calling app.

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.