Smartphone sales set to soar

Posted by By George Paine at 21 February, at 16 : 50 PM Print

Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico reported today that smartphone sales in Brazil are predicted to double 2010 levels this year. With predicted sales of around 10 million handsets, this exceeds even the expected sales of desktop computers (7.7 million) and notebooks (8 million).

The data, from analyst house IDC, shows that worldwide sales of PCs is now only growing at a modest rate, up just 2.7% in the final quarter of 2010 when compared to the previous year. When contrasted with an 87% increase in worldwide sales of smartphones over the past year, the numbers show that a clear trend is developing, and not only in Brazil.

“The high-end of the market has been important to help grow the smartphone market in recent years,” noted IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. “IDC expects vendors to provide more mid-range and low-end smartphones at lower prices to reach the mass market. In the same manner, even high-end devices will become available at lower prices. This will result in greater competition and more selection for users.”

As Brazilian consumers increasingly reach for their mobiles to browse the web, data prices might be expected to plummet, but network operators in Europe and the USA have been blasted by phone users for limiting supposed ‘unlimited’ data packages. All the Brazilian operators will be keeping an eye on just what consumers expect from an ‘unlimited’ package before making significant changes to their pricing plans.

Photograph: Mark Hillary

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