Smartphones Rising Over ‘Dumb’ Phones!

It was Apple Inc. that introduced the first smartphone in the year 2007 in the form of an iPhone. Since then, the mobile industry has been revolutionized. The launch of the smartphone marked the greatest ever expansion of the mobile market and turned the tables for every company that was currently a player in it. From the top mobile phone maker of the world, Nokia Corp took a tumble down as its mobile phones lost the popularity they had retained for several years. Now, it is Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics reigning in the mobile industry, which is mostly regarded as the smartphone market.

Dumb phones are still being manufactured; there is no doubt about that. However, they are no match to the success and demand, which smartphones enjoy nowadays. As a matter of fact, IDC, the research firm recently announced that this year i.e. 2012, more smartphones are being produced as compared to dumb phones. This is a huge milestone because it marks a shift that is putting internet access and computing power into the hands of millions of people all around the globe. In the first three months of the current year, a total of 216 million smartphones were shipped by manufacturers worldwide. In comparison, 189 million regular phones were shipped in the same period.

According to the latest study of IDC, of the 419 million smartphones that were shipped worldwide, smartphones made up around 51.6% of them. In the year 2011, regular phones were overtaken by smartphones in the US market. It was stated by an analyst of IDC that this greater shift towards smartphones was contributed by the consumers that reside in developing countries like Indonesia, China and India. ABI research, another research firm discovered that 49% of the shipments in the first quarter were of smartphones.

The largest mobile phone maker of the world, Samsung Electronics does not provide a breakdown of the number of phone shipments it makes. Therefore, the totals and estimates of the analysts vary. However, even going by the numbers revealed by ABI research, it is quite clear that this year; the market will be taken over by the smartphones. The cellphone industry has been roiled completely from the move of people from phones used for calling and texting to the ones used for pretty much everything with their advanced operating systems and unique touch screens. Nokia had been the world’s largest maker of mobile phones for over a decade, but it wasn’t able to achieve the same success with smartphones.

It holds the second position, after Samsung as the largest mobile phone maker, but falls a lot below in the list of the top smartphone makers. A US company, Motorola Mobility has also failed in the transition and has been taken up by Google. Apple Inc., on the other hand, has managed to become the third largest mobile phone maker in the period of six years since it launched its first iPhone. The top makers of smartphones are Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics, but the third position is being fought over by various companies.