Amidst the popularity of smartphones at these times, feature phones are still leading in the overall mobile phone shipments worldwide. However, that may soon change as the popularity of smartphones still continues to rise rapidly. In 2015, smartphones will surpass feature phones shipments according to the latest report released by iSuppli.

The results from the IHS iSuppli Mobile Handset Market Tracker report, indicates that the global smartphone unit shipments will soar to 1.3 billion in 2015 which is more than double compared to the 478 million in 2011. This would increase the market share of smartphones to 54.4 percent in 2015, which is significantly higher than the 32.5 percent in 2011. Smartphones have experienced overwhelming growth over the last few years, which only comprised to 15.8 percent of the overall mobile phone market in 2009.

Within the smartphone sector, low-end devices with limited features are leading the way. iSuppli sees low-end devices as the fastest-growing category with a compound annual growth rate of 115.4 percent during the period from 2010 to 2015. Mid-range and high-end devices only account to just 16.4 percent.

“With their affordable prices, low-end smart phones are attractive to first-time users and to consumers in emerging economies where subscriber levels are rising at the fastest rates of all regions of the world, such as China, India, South Asia and Africa,” said Francis Sideco, senior principal analyst, wireless communications for IHS.

“Low-end smart phones often are sold with inexpensive tiered data plans that target consumers who do not yet need full-featured services. This further reduces these phones’ total cost of ownership, making them attractive to vast numbers of entry-level consumers.”

Currently, the biggest phone carrier worldwide in terms of subscribers is the Hong Kong-based company, China Mobile. The company’s total number of subscribers has already reached 621 million – with majority of its subscribers are still using 2G and 3G networks. Part of their strategy is selling subsidized smartphones to subscribers with affordable data plans.

Services Angle

Google’s acquisition of Motorola’s mobile group provides a sign of what we can expect in the low-end smartphone market. Motorola is known for its low-end devices. With Google Android, the devices can be programmed to offer services such as tiered pricing plans that provides low-end storage plans for back up and other uses.