Despite concerns about the economy, the mobile device market is on track to deliver 13% growth this year, with annual shipments of 1.3 billion units, according to a report from ABI Research.
The firm said 301 million units shipped during the second quarter and tier-one handset vendors had year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15% and 22%.
“If there is an economic slowdown, no one bothered to tell the mobile device buying public,” says Jake Saunders, VP of ABI Research.
“In particular, consumers in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America shrugged off inflation fears to sign up as mobile phone users.
“These healthy gains in net subscriber additions are stimulating replacement and upgrade sales,” said Saunders. “In developed markets handset purchases tended to be flat, but those consumers who did purchase dug deeper and paid out more for coveted higher-end handsets and smartphones.”
ABI said Nokia has surpassed 40% market share for the first time.
Samsung ranked second in handset market share with 15.2%, and Motorola barely held on to the third-place spot with 9.3%, ahead of LG’s 9.2% market share. Sony Ericsson rounded out the list with 8.3% market share.
Handset sales set for 13% growth in 2008
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