Cell phone deliveries decline in 2009

As the year end draws nearer, things are finally looking up for the cell phone manufacturers, despite the fact most of them are pretty hard hit by the economic recession that got full-blown at the beginning of 2009. Market analysts with ABI Research expect an overall decrease in the number of cell phones delivered in 2009 to be just 4-5% on annual basis. They estimate that more than 291.1mln. handsets left the manufacturing facilities of the major cell phone players in Q3 2009, a figure that reveals a 6.5% decline compared to the same period last year. Most cell phone manufacturers seem to have retained their market shares, with just a few losing some ground. The major winners are Samsung and Apple - they both managed to increase their market share. The former currently has 20.7% of the world market, while the Cupertino-based manufacturer holds a nice, 2.5% piece of the cake. Analysers expect to see Apple continue its offensive and expand its customer base further.

According to ABI Research, the major factors that influenced the market were the growing demand for smartphones in the US and the recovering Asian economies. Moreover, the number of people looking for devices equipped with GPS is on the rise and the company estimates that almost 21% of all cell phones to be sold in 2009 feature built-in navigation module. We do hope that in this case, market recovery equates to a larger number of more exciting devices in 2010.

source: SlashPhone