Infographic reveals forecast that 75% of handsets sold in 2017 will be smartphones

CCS Insight has released an interesting infographic that is packed full of forecasts for the mobile device industry. As Bob Dylan once sang, "The times they are a-changin'". The first quarter of this year saw smartphone shipments outpace the transport of featurephones for the first time ever. Acording to CCS Insight, 53% of the 1.86 billion mobile phones to be shipped this year will be of the more intelligent variety. By 2017, 3 out of every 4 mobile handsets shipped will be a smartphone. The increasing penetration of the smartphone has a lot to do with price. As cheaper models become available, they push featurephones out of the picture.

A lot of the growth is coming from emerging markets. Sales of smartphones and tablets to those regions will make up 53% of the total this year, according to CCS Insight. The research firm sees this number rising to 65% by 2017. Another driving force behind the explosion in smartphone sales is the more widespread availability of 4G service. 64 million 4G enabled phones were sold last year, a figure dwarfed by the expected sale of 227 million 4G enabled handsets in 2013.


source: CCSInsight via IntoMobile