Despite the growing popularity of mobile phones, worldwide sales of the devices were actually down in Q2 2009 compared to Q2 2008. In reality, this represents a positive trend compared to prior quarters, where sales had been on a steady decline.
The graph below also depicts the same variance in mobile handset sales, while also displaying the relevant market share for some of the largest mobile phone vendors. In that respect, Nokia has continued to remain a dominant player in the mobile phone industry.
A somewhat separate yet related study shows worldwide shipments of GPS-enabled smartphones in 2009 are expected to increase from the year before by 34% to 77 million units. This surge in sales is probably the result of improved mapping applications such as Google Maps and Blackberry Maps that are now available on most smartphones.
Source: eMarketer, August 10, 2009
