Smartphones vs. Dumbphones

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Brief2One of the most common occurrences of everyday life is seeing someone, whether a friend or a stranger, pull out their cell phone and either check or answer messages and calls. Over 75 percent of high school students have cell phones and an astounding 99.8 percent of college students carry the mobile devices. And for the first time in history smartphones – like the iPhone, Andriod and Samsung Galaxy – are out selling feature phones, or “dumbphones,” worldwide.

Research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) recently reported that smartphones made up 51.6 percent of the 419 million mobile phones shipped worldwide. Manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones in just the first three months of 2013, compared to the 189 million regular cell phones.

In the U.S. smartphone sales surpassed feature phone sales back in 2011. According to the study, the global shift towards smartphones is being driven by consumers in countries like China, India and Indonesia and mobile phone operators simply wanting more smartphones to sell more data plans.

“[I would] definitely want one, except I’d have to pay for it myself,” third-year David Scrivener, a feature phone user, said. “I just don’t want to spend $80.00 a month because I’m broke.”

A similar study conducted by ABI Research, found that smartphones only made up 49 percent of shipments. The discrepancy between the two studies is because Smsung Electronics Co., the largest phone make in the world, does not provide a breakdown of its shipments and the estimates vary. However, even based on ABI’s research, it is clear that smartphones will overtake the global market by the end of 2013.

Information from this article is taken from www.abcnews.com, www.huffingtonpost.com and www.hackcollege.com.

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