Smartphone sales blew past the number of PCs sold last year, and they'll
be nearly twice PC sales this year, analyst Alex
Cocotas of BI Intelligence predicts.
More startling, smartphone sales will exceed 1.5 billion units per
year by 2016. This compares to about 350 million PCs and 1.7 billion
mobile handsets sold globally last year.
Smartphone sales will be driven by two main factors, BI Intelligence
says:
- Replacement of nearly 5 billion "dumbphones" with smartphones (smartphones currently make up only 10% of handsets worldwide)
- Price declines. The average price of a smartphone will drop from about $315 last year to $200 over the next several years