Growth at the high end of the smartphone market might be slowing, but it seems like nothing can stop the low-end smartphone market. Smartphones out-shipped feature phones for the first time in Q1 this year and according to market research firm DisplaySearch, smartphones will continue to dominate basic cell phones for the rest of 2013. The firm sees smartphone shipments hitting 937 million units this year, handily topping the 889 million feature phones expected to ship. By 2016, smartphones shipments will hit 1.45 billion units thanks to growth in emerging markets, and smart handsets will make up an estimated two-thirds of the global cell phone market at that time.
“The global smartphone market is expected to continue growing rapidly over the next two years,” said Shawn Lee, research director at DisplaySearch. “With larger, higher-resolution displays, faster processors, and higher-capacity cellular systems being built, the smartphone is not only becoming a must-have device, but is satisfying many needs that formerly required other computing and consumer electronics devices.”
