Shipments of cellular handsets will touch 1.55-billion mark in 2011, a 9% increase over the 1.4 billion shipped in 2010, according to a IC Insights report.
Good growth is forecast to continue for cellphone unit shipments in 2012 (8%) before declining slightly in the cyclical slowdown year of 2013, according to IC Insights’ recently released update to its IC Market Drivers report.
The 2009-2014 cellphone unit shipment CAGR is forecast to be less than half the 2002-2009 CAGR. However, surging shipments of smartphones, and their associated high IC content, are forecast to have a huge impact on the IC market through the forecast period.
Smartphones accounted for about 25% of total cellphone shipments in 1Q11 compared to 16% in the same quarter a year earlier, the report said.
In 2011, total smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 60% to 440 million units, after increasing 56% to 275 million in 2010.
Between 2009 and 2014, smartphone shipments are expected to rise at a CAGR of 37% to 845 million units in the final year of the forecast period.
That growth rate is more than five times the projected CAGR for total cellphone unit shipments (7%) in the five-year timeframe.
Almost half of all cellphone handsets shipped in 2014 (47%) are expected to be some type of smartphone, up from 19% in 2010.
