News

Report: Smartphone Market To Grow 49 Percent in 2011

• By Chris Paoli
• March 29, 2011

An IDC report released today projects that the worldwide smarpthone market will see a 49.2 percent growth and will ship an estimated 450 million units for 2011.

The research and analytic company forecasts that devices running Google's Android OS will have the best year, and will claim 39.5 percent of the market by the end of 2011 and 45.4 percent by 2015.

"For the vendors who made Android the cornerstone of their smartphone strategies, 2010 was the coming-out party," said Ramon Llamas, IDC's senior research analyst for the Mobile Devices Technology and Trends group. "This year will see a coronation party as these same vendors broaden and deepen their portfolios to reach more customers, particularly first-time smartphone users."

As for the other OS newcomer to the smartphone field, Windows Phone 7, IDC points to the recent deal struck between Microsoft and Nokia to be a catalyst for strong growth for the smartphone brand and projects that the OS will take the second spot behind Android by 2015.

The assumption that Microsoft will have 20.9 percent of the market share by 2015 has come under fire by critics, including Redmond magazine columnist  Mary Jo Foley. In a recent blog post on ZDNet, she points out that IDC is assuming all Nokia users will switch from the Symbian OS to Windows Phone 7 devices, which may be too much of a leap of faith.

"I'm sure Microsoft is counting on getting a hefty share boost from its $1 billion-plus investment in Nokia, but will the Softies manage to hold onto almost all the Symbian base, as Nokia tries to wean them from Symbian? I'd think, given some Nokia users' skepticism about the sanity of the deal, more than a few might go Android or iOS," Foley wrote.

She also points out that a lot can happen in IDC's four year projection window, when concerned with consumer devices and new technology. Unknown devices and new companies jumping into the relatively young business will more than likely play a factor in final sales numbers.

ZDNet's Larry Dignan also points out the fact that the Nokia-Microsoft deal probably won't bear fruit for another year. "Let's see, Nokia won't have a barrage of Windows Phone 7 phones in the market until 2012," wrote Dignan in a blog post. "Nokia is essentially taking a year off while other handset makers (Samsung, HTC, RIM, Apple, Motorola) keep pumping out smartphones. Nokia is a no-show in the U.S. and it's possible that folks that leave the handset maker in 2011 may not come back."

Here is the complete breakdown of IDC's projected forecast: