GfK Retail and Technology's latest Irish Handset data is said to show that the smartphone revolution is beginning to arrive in the Republic of Ireland. Since the beginning of the year, the smartphone share has doubled from 8% to 16%, driven by key hero handsets.
This trend is coupled with the more dramatic share that touchscreens now represent in the Irish Mobile Handset marketplace. In January, one in every four handsets sold was a touchscreen and this has moved up to nearly 1 in 3 handsets purchased. The key understanding to derive from this is that the common assumption that a touchscreen phone is "smart" is not necessarily true.
Currently, 63.4% of touchscreen handsets, sold YTD April 2010, are classed as traditional mobile phones, which indicates that a large proportion of mobile users in Ireland are yet to embrace the ‘There's an App for that' culture and the ability to send emails via their phones. It is clear that consumers are embracing the more tactile way of interacting with a phone, says GfK.
GfK started tracking the Irish Mobile Phone Market in February 2010, representing a first for the country's Telecom industry. Sales information is taken directly from EPOS records provided to GfK through its retailer and operator partners to produce the definitive statistical view of the handset and mobile tariffs industry.
GfK defines smartphones as having all of the following a) Advanced Operating System b) Touch/QWERTY input c) Full Email Client