TechPulse 360

With the economy expected to continue improving, analyst firm Forward Concepts forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 24% for Smartphones to the 496 million unit level in 2014.

Follows some of the key findings of the Forward Concepts latest study.

1. Smartphone shipments worldwide grew 18% in 2009 to 171 million units at a $67 billion level. The Smartphone semiconductor and display revenue reached $11.7 billion.
2. Nokia continued to lead Smartphone shipments in 2009, with a market share of 36.4%, followed by RIM at 19.4%, Apple at 14.9% and HTC at 6.3%. Sharp follows with a 3.5% market share, then Samsung at 3.4%. 18 other Smartphone vendors constitute the remaining 20% share.
3. Western Europe has overtaken Japan to be the leader in Smartphone consumption, with a 23% 2009 market share. However in 2010, North America is forecast to become the leading Smartphone market, driven by iPhone and Android phones,  with a 22% share, closely followed by Western Europe at 21.6%, and fast-growing China at 17%.
4. Symbian continues to be the leading Smartphone operating system, with an estimated 43% unit market share in 2009, while RIM’s Blackberry OS (19%) and Apple’s OS X (15%) has supplanted Microsoft Windows Mobile (13%) for the #2 and #3 positions. Linux variants, including Android, reached 8%, followed by, Palm’s WebOS with 2%. In 2014, Forward Concepts analysts predict that Android will grow to the #2 position, followed by OS X in 2014.

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