Growth of the worldwide converged mobile device market (commonly referred to as smartphones) more than doubled that of the overall mobile phone market in the first quarter, a sign the segment is in high-growth mode again. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 54.7 million units in the first quarter of 2010 (1Q10), up 56.7% from the same quarter a year ago. In contrast, the overall mobile phone market grew 21.7%. Converged mobile devices accounted for 18.8% of all mobile phones shipped in 1Q10, up slightly from 14.4% in 1Q09.
"2010 looks to be another year of large-scale consumer adoption of converged mobile devices," says Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. "Consumers will gravitate to smartphones not just because the devices themselves look 'cool' and 'slick', but because the overall experience aligns with their individual tastes and demands. Users are seeking – and finding – experiences that are intuitive, seamless, and fun. Already, we've seen what Palm's webOS and Google's Android can do. This year, we expect updates for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile to spark greater smartphone demand with their offerings."The smartphone market's growth is impressive too when contrasted to the 38% growth in the fourth quarter, which is typically the strongest of the year. This demonstrates the tremendous potential of the market and the depths to which it plunged in the first quarter of last year.


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