Smartphone sales set to increase 36% this year

Smartphone sales increased 15% year on year to 187.2 million in 2009, despite the total number of mobile handset sales falling by 8.9% over the same period, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

This year, Informa forecasts that smartphone sales will be up by a much higher 36% to pass 255 million unit sales worldwide (which represents one in five of all handsets).  This impressive increase has been accredited to popular and innovative new devices such as Apple’s iPhone4, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 and Samsung’s Galaxy S handsets.

Consumers are beginning to understand the benefits of apps, and this, along with with the downward pressure on smartphone pricing, has helped smartphone sales soar during the first half of 2010.

Interestingly, the report also predicts that Google’s operating system Android will surpass Apple’s iOS by the end of this year and become the largest mobile handset platform by 2012.

Informa’s latest report notes four major mobile trends during 2010 so far:

1. The continued adoption of open-source platforms and technologies: This has helped reduce development costs, but has challenged vendors to develop new differentiation factors; typically user interface and user experience.
2. Vendors develop their own user interface and user experience layers (UI): Vendors including Motorola, Sony Ericsson and HTC have looked to deliver a more controlled experience and to improve brand loyalty through an immersive UI layer, which typically is common across each of the smartphone OSs that the vendor has chosen to support. Two notable omissions are LG and Nokia, both of which are undergoing a period of redevelopment.
3. The rise of Android: Viewed by operators as being the best OS after Apple’s iOS, Android has seen a growth in activations from 60,000 per day in February to 160,000 per day. Informa Telecoms
   & Media expects the platform to surpass Apple’s iOS by the end of 2010 and become the largest mobile handset platform by 2012.
4. A potential future return to proprietary ecosystems: Apple’s success in the mobile handset market, based on the delivery of a compelling user experience based on an ecosystem it controls has encouraged other vendors, such as Palm, RIM and Samsung to consider developing their own – open but proprietary – operating systems. It is believed the Motorola and LG may have medium-term projects to develop their own OSs.