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Jul. 27, 2007

Overall, sales of mobile phones and smartphones were down about 13 percent to $35.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest report from Infonetics Research.

However, the report expects unit shipment numbers to grow, due to the medium's increasing popularity in some developing countries.

Revenue is expected to continue to decline as the price of basic handsets continues to decrease and overall competition in developed markets continues to grow.

Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics Research said "up until today, smartphone purchasers have been largely business power-users. However, with the launch of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's BlackJack, this is giving the smartphone segment a boost."

Webb added "this could change the dynamics of the mobile phone market. Vendors will design more consumer-oriented smartphones, and cause fierce competition among incumbent players."

Despite all of that, Infonetics expects worldwide revenue for mobile phones to total only $117 billion in 2010, about an 18 percent decrease from last year's numbers.

At the same time, worldwide Wi-Fi phone revenue fell approximately 8 percent to $5 billion during the first quarter of this year.

Nevertheless, Infonetics still expects strong double-digit growth every year through 2010 for the converged Wi-Fi/cellular device market.

In less than three years from now, the report predicts the Wi-Fi handset market will top $145 billion.

In line with today's growing trend, Infonetics' report notes increased enterprise adoption of Wi-Fi phones as the technology is better integrated into office PBX systems.

The report expects handsets incorporating seamless handover between cellular and Wi-Fi networks to represent about 35 percent of the dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular phone market by 2010, compared to about 3 percent last year.

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Source: Wireless Week