Smartphone shipments continue to grow, despite dwindling cellphone sales
By Will Park on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 5:41 PM PST In Announcements, Financial/Corporate News, Research
Smartphones are the new pink, or whatever color it is that’s “hot” these days. As if the iPhone’s “mass-marketization” of the smartphone wasn’t proof enough, new data from IDC confirms that smartphone shipments continue to grow while overall cellphone shipments continue to decline. Global cellphone shipments slipped 15.8%, making for just 244 million handsets shipped in the first quarter of 2009. Compared to the 290 million units shipped in the year-ago Q1, it’s clear that the mobile phone market is feeling the economic pinch. But, if you’re a smartphone manufacturer, things aren’t all that bad. Smartphone shipments grew 4% in Q1 2009!
Supply chain issues related to the weak global economy and depressed consumer demand were blamed for the lower-than-expected Q1 shipments. But, the silver lining here is that smartphone demand continues to defy economic conditions. The popularity of the smartphone segment has even prompted Viewsonic to try their hand at making a 3G smartphone. If the smartphone market continues to grow, which it very well should (in fact, one day all phones will be “smartphones”), Viewsonic may succeed. That is, unless they “pull a Garmin.”
