Smartphones have been a catching fever these last few years. With the whole host of features and high-end hardware that many of them pack, they are far more powerful than computers once were. According to the figures released by the research firm, Strategy Analytics, the total number of smartphones used worldwide has exceeded a whopping 1 billion during the third quarter this year!

This is a very significant landmark and goes on to show the huge influence these nifty devices have come about to exert in our lives. 1 billion smartphones essentially mean that every one in 7 people owns a smartphone.

And the smartphone-era seems far from over. Without every new iPhone that Apple releases, the sales figures grow exponentially. Android is also here to stay, commanding the largest smartphone user base. Given the current smartphone market statistics, the smartphone growth is going to grow ever further for many years to come.

Sadly, though, the very company that introduced the first commercial smartphone, Nokia, is not faring very well in the market. Back in 1996, the company launched the Nokia Communicator, the device which is held as the first ever smartphone to have become commercially available. While the smartphone fever didn’t really catch up exactly until Apple and Google jumped the bandwagon, Nokia has gradually slid out of the scene.

According to a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, Scott Bicheno, “Nokia remained a dominant force in smartphones for over a decade until the arrival of Apple’s iconic iPhone in 2007. The iPhone revolutionized smartphone design and it catalyzed industry growth.”

The executive director of the firm, Neil Mawston, believes that there is still a lot of room for the smartphone market to grow, “Most of the world does not yet own a smartphone and there remains huge scope for future growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa. The first billion smartphones in use worldwide took 16 years to reach, but we forecast the next billion to be achieved in less than three years, by 2015.”

Source: Strategy Analytics

Courtesy: CNET

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