Cheap cellphones set to take over market by 2014

Cheap cellphones will account for nearly 79% of all mobile handsets in the next five years, Juniper Research predicts.

While India accounted for the most low-cost handset sales last year (23%), the Middle East and Africa region is expected to take over with 166 million units - representing 24% of global sales in 2014.

The market sees more economical handset options for emerging markets, while high-end varieties cater to developed regions. In contrast, mid-ranged handsets are watching their share slowly restrict.

Juniper analyst Andrew Kitson believes that vendors such as Nokia, Apple and RIM are well positioned to benefit from these trends, whilst players operating more in the mid range market such as Sony Ericsson and Motorola have to rethink their strategy.

“Low-cost handset shipments will number more than 700 million in 2014, up by 31% from levels seen in 2008…At the same time, smartphone shipment volumes will grow continuously across the forecast period, reaching almost 360 million by the end of the period. We therefore expect that mid-range device sales volumes will fall by more than 41% over the period,” stated Kitson.

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