The smartphone market will climb to 37% of global handset sales in 2014, expanding from 16% of market share in 2009 to 37% in 2014, with emerging markets driving the growth, according to Pyramid Research.
China is forecast to capture the top position in 2010, driven by operators' aggressive promotion of smartphones using wider portfolios, more attractive pricing for services, and new initiatives.
Five-Year Forecast
The fastest-growing markets over the next five years will be Brazil, with a compound annual growth rate of 43%, followed by India (39%), Turkey (37%), and Nigeria (34%), Pyramid projects.
Latin America will be the fastest growing region overall, with a CAGR of 48%, followed by Africa (39%) and the Middle East (39%), the company said.
Smartphone Share Growth in Emerging Markets, 2009
As a share of total handsets, smartphone adoption in Latin America increased 67% in the third quarter 2009, to 5% of market share, from 3% in the third quarter 2008, according to separate research from Morgan Stanley.
Smartphone adoption increased 16.7% in the Asia Pacific region during the same period, to 7% of market share up from 6% the previous year, Morgan Stanley said.
Apple Forecast to Dominate Global Smartphone Market
Based on past performance, Apple is in the "pole position" in the race to dominate mobile Internet computing with "two or three-year lead," Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley is quoted by CNN as saying.
Although the iPhone and iPod touch constitute just 17% of the global smartphone market in the third quarter 2009, the two devices are responsible for 65% of handheld Web browsing, according to Net Applications, and 50% of all mobile app use, according to AdMob; meanwhile, Nokia's Symbian platform accounts for 45% of all mobile devices, but just 7% of the Web browsing share:
