GfK Retail and Technology’s latest research figures have revealed that the Smartphone prepay market has grown from a 2% share in the prepay market in 2009 to 10% in 2010, reaching 20% in December 2010. Compared with December 2009, prepay handset sales declined 7.4%. In terms of value, Smartphones accounted for 50% of the total prepay market in December 2010, it says.
Phones with an advanced Operating System (OS) have continued to grow in 2010 in the contract market and during the last quarter of 2010 growth accelerated in the prepay market as well. Within this growth, sales of Android phones have increased in both the contract and prepay markets. Android represented 28.9% of the Smartphone prepay market in terms of volume during December.
“By the end of 2010 the rise in the share of Smartphones in the contract market had stabilized,” commented GfK analyst Megan Baldock. “The prepay market is still gathering momentum and this trend looks set to continue in 2011.”