Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/45cl3d/smartphone) has announced the addition of the "Smartphone Markets: Worldwide Trends, Forecasts and Strategies 2012-2017" report to their offering.

Affordability is vital in the effort to encourage non-smartphone owners to adopt smartphones.

The smartphone industry is set to change in 2013. Emerging Asia-Pacific will receive more smartphone shipments than Europe and North America combined in 2012. The smartphone market is changing from an elitist high-end device pool to a segmented mass-market ocean of handsets.

This report provides:

- The following forecasts for smartphones:

- Profiles of the regional smartphone markets

- Detailed analyst views on Android, iOS, Windows Phone and other OSs

- Analysis of the average selling price of smartphones, and ARPU

- Details of the cost of owning an iPhone 5 by operator

- Smartphone retailing and pricing recommendations for operators

- An impact assessment of smartphone app usage on operators and device vendors.

Data coverage

- Total handsets

- Smartphones

- Handset connections by technology

- Shipments by operating system

Key Highlights:

• Worldwide smartphone forecasts and OS shares: Demand-based shipment and active devices forecasts
• The smartphone share of active handset SIMs will grow to just under 50% by 2017 - 1.4 billion new smartphones will enter the market in that year
• Active smartphone SIMs are a better indication of the addressable smartphone user base for service providers than shipments
• 75% of smartphone shipments will be upgrades in 2017
• 62% of smartphones will use 4G networks in developed markets by the end of 2017
• Emerging Asia-Pacific will drive more than a third of smartphone demand by 2017
• Central and Eastern Europe will catch up with Western Europe in terms of penetration rates, during the forecast period
• Smartphone adoption will plateau in North America from 2017 onwards, with penetration flattening out at around 85%
• China will have over 200 million active smartphones by the end of 2012, despite low disposable income, no subsidies and limited 3G coverage
• Microsoft will ship almost as many Windows Phone units in 2017 as Apple will ship iPhones in 2012
• Chinese manufacturers will capture most of the growth from lower-end customers during 2012-2017, taking market share from other players
• Samsung will be the leading Android smartphone vendor throughout the forecast period, but only by a small margin
• Despite significant success, Android brings a level of fragmentation to the market, adding complexity to app development
• Windows Phone will be the fastest-growing OS in terms of shipments in the next 5 years
• Microsoft's Surface device range threatens Windows Phone partnerships
• Worldwide smartphone forecasts and OS shares: Smartphone commoditisation
• The average selling price of a smartphone declined by EUR300 from 2007 to 2011, which is threatening device profitability
• Android is the primary driver of smartphone commoditisation, as a growing number of vendors adopt the OS
• The response from competing OSs has been weak: Nokia's strategy is to push Symbian via low-end devices with content bundles
• Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Lowering smartphone ownership costs: handset subsidies and financing plans
• Subsidies and creative tariff strategies are essential for driving high-end smartphone adoption and mobile data usage
• Variations in subsidies and packages mean the minimum cost of an iPhone 5 16GB varies between EUR700 (3HK) and EUR1840 (T-Mobile USA)
• Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Monetising smartphone users: mobile data pricing and 4G
• The greatest monetisation potential for operators in their smartphone user base is mobile data access
• Smartphones are great drivers of data consumption but the price per gigabyte is set to decrease threatening smartphone user monetisation
• If operators are to maximise smartphone monetisation, 4G adoption is paramount, but the value proposition is not always clear to consumers
• Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Managing device and OS ecosystems
• Unlike other handsets, vendors and operators must provide smartphones with OS upgrades, which may have significant cost implications
• If a third OS gains enough traction to compete with Android and iOS, it can create opportunities for operators to support transitioning subscribers
• However, multi-device ecosystems will limit the number of transitions from one OS to another in the high-end customer segment

Companies Mentioned

- Acer

- Alcatel Mobile Phones

- AT&T

- Apple

- Fujitsu

- Google

- HTC

- Huawei

- Hutchison

- Lenovo

- LG

- M1

- Micromax

- Microsoft

- Netflix

- Nokia

- Panasonic

- Pantech

- Research In Motion (RIM)

- Samsung

- Skype

- Sony

- Sony Mobile Communications

- Spotify

- Sprint

- Telefónica

- Telstra

- Verizon Wireless

- Vodafone

- ZTE

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/45cl3d/smartphone