There’s good news for the likes of Nokia Corp.(NOK), Samsung, LG and BlackBerry, all of which have overtaken former mobile device leaders Motorola Inc. (MOT)and Sony Ericsson: Analysts say cell phone companies have good reason to be optimistic as they showcased their latest high-end devices at CTIA Wireless 2009 this week.
“Smartphones still compete on hardware features that support key apps like photography or video viewing, but software and applications that enable a user's preferred mobile uses have an increasing influence on device selection – personalization will be king,” Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics, explained in a media release. “For instance, the Android platform may be a work in progress, but the first handset to use it, the G1, is attracting high levels of interest, and future models are likely be optimized for key Web applications like social networking.”
Indeed, Infonetics expects smartphones to outperform their counterparts during the downturn, showing “modest growth” in 2009. Then, from 2011 to 2013, the segment will post double-digit annual revenue growth, the firm found in a recent study. In fact, smartphones will be the sole part of the mobile phone industry to maintain annual sales growth over the next five years, analysts said.
