Business | Technology
Smartphones drive growth in Mideast handset market
Research firm Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that the Middle East handset market will be worth $8.18 billion (Dh30.2 billion) this year, an increase of 7.92 per cent compared to $7.58 billion last year.
- By Naushad K. Cherrayil, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:01 March 1, 2009
Dubai: Research firm Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that the Middle East handset market will be worth $8.18 billion (Dh30.2 billion) this year, an increase of 7.92 per cent compared to $7.58 billion last year.
Matthew Reed, Analyst Mobile Markets, Informa Telecoms & Media, said: "The growth of the mobile handset market value will be essentially driven by the smartphone segment, which will see double-digit annual growth until the final year of the 2008-2013 period.
"The non-smartphone segment will see almost zero growth over the early part of the forecast period; the value will only start to grow in 2011, it will have passed six per cent.
Reed added that the growth will continue to be driven by non-smartphones in emerging markets,
According to Reed, the global smartphone market will be worth $60.46 billion in 2009 compared to $48.87 billion in 2008, an increase of 23.72 per cent.
By 2013, the smartphone market will be valued at $95.05 billion versus $108.47 billion for non-Smartphone. This is will be roughly 47 per cent of the market.
Vendors are increasing their involvement in open mobile terminal software, which is a core foundation in the development of smartphone devices. Open source will play a key role in bringing smartphones to the mass market.
A number of mobile open source foundations have been created within the last two years; including the Symbian Foundation, the Open Handset Alliance, and the Linux in Mobile foundation.
"In emerging countries, device vendors will have a vested interest in creating additional distribution channels and will have to work tightly with mobile operators to boost sales of devices as the growth prospects in these regions are still very high," Reed said.
He added that some vendors are now looking at developing new categories of high-value devices, such as Mobile Internet devices or portable tablet PCs.
However, the most important trends among device vendors are the creation of ecosystems that will enable them to bundle sales of their devices with the services they are aiming to offer.
"Although Informa Telecoms & Media thinks it is premature to evaluate whether these new strategies will succeed, it does believe that the handset market will consolidate massively within the next five years.
Looking forward, it is becoming clear that, in these regions, handset, including some of some of the leading vendors, will be pushed to exit this market. Vendors can no longer rely on handset sales to sustain growth," Reed said.
Vendors will have to get involved in the content creation and service offering, Reed added.
This trend is already gaining ground as a number of device vendors are now trying to create end-to-end ecosystems linking their devices to service platforms.
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