It may seem like that the entire world owns and uses smartphones. After all, hardly a day passes without the launch of a new handset.
But in reality, smartphones only have 27 percent share in the global phone market. According to a recent report released by VisionMobile, smartphones usage is concentrated in various geographical pockets.
Smartphones tend to be more popular in regions with better infrastructure such as robust 3G support. On the other hand, feature phones do better in the markets with attractively priced pre-paid plans. Essentially, things boil down to economics and feature phones have better sales performance in price conscious markets.
Smartphone concentration is highest in the US, where 6e percent of the users wield smartphone. Europe occupies the second place with 51 percent penetration and Asia Pacific is a distant third with 19 percent of its residents using Smartphone. Africa and Middle East has feature phone usage as high as 81 percent and only 18 percent of the residents are smartphone friendly. Latin America is close behind with 17 percent people using smartphones.
The report not only concentrates on smartphone-feature phone divide, but also delves deeper into the various characteristics of these markets. The survey shows that markets with higher feature phone concentration are also the main markets for RIM and Nokia phones. However, lately these markets are also becoming Android friendly, which may be due to the introduction of low-end Android phones.