IDC said Friday that the global handset market grew 17.9 percent to a record quarterly shipment of 401.4 million units in the fourth quarter. Moreover, handset vendors delivered 1.39 billion handsets in all of 2010 — an 18.5 percent increase over the previous year.
The availability of a wider array of advanced smartphones at affordable prices helped drive the overall market to its highest growth rate since 2006, when cell-phone shipments increased 22.6 percent. Looking ahead, IDC believes growth in the mobile-phone market will continue to be driven largely by smartphones through the end of 2014.
“Feature-phone users looking to do more with their devices will flock to smartphones in the years to come,” predicted IDC Senior Research Analyst David Restivo. “This trend will help drive the smartphone submarket to grow 43.7 percent year over year in 2011.”
Apple’s Robust Quarter
Apple racked up a phenomenal 86.2 percent year-over-year growth on a global basis in the final three months of 2010. According to IDC, the iPhone sold particularly well in North America and Western Europe, and Apple said it could have sold even more had it been able to make more handsets.
Both Apple and Research In Motion maintained robust sales in the U.S. market despite facing new smartphone competition from Dell, Huawei, Kyocera and Sanyo. Moreover, Apple is almost certain to continue building a commanding market position in the quarter currently under way due to next month’s iPhone 4 launch at Verizon Wireless.
AT&T has clearly been worried about the prospect that some of its iPhone subscribers will migrate to Verizon’s network. Apple, however, only stands to gain since current AT&T subscribers would have to purchase a new CDMA version of the iPhone 4 to switch carriers.
Verizon’s recent decision to provide reimbursement for AT&T subscribers who trade in their old iPhones when moving…