Smartphones are more than just phones. They are lifestyle choices that are accelerating adoption.
Parks Associates forecasts over 2 billion people worldwide will own
at least one smartphone in 2015, with unit sales growing over 175% from
2010. Smartphone shipments jumped 70% in 2010, with approximately 500 million users.
The most successful smartphone makers, including HTC, Samsung, and Apple,
were also the most innovative. Companies slow to innovate, including
Nokia and RIM, have suffered declining market share.
Hardware and software innovations, such as dual-facing camera-supported
video chat and app-enabled content consumption, will continue to drive
this market through the down economy.
"Smartphones represent a new lifestyle," said Harry Wang,
Director, Mobile Research, Parks Associates. "Consumer desire for that
lifestyle has accelerated the traditional mobile phone replacement cycle
and will drive near-term hypergrowth of the smartphone market."
RIM's smartphone market share declined from 19.8% in 2009 to
16.5% in 2010, while Apple's share of the smartphone market grew from
13.9% to 15.8% in the same period.