Android to take APAC majority in 2011

Android will account for the majority of Asia's swelling smartphone sales in 2011, a research firm predicts, but faces escalating competition at the low-end.

 

Smartphone sales are forecast to account for around a quarter of handset sales in Asia-Pacific during the year, with shipments growing 56% from 2010, ABI Research forecasts.

 

Android devices will account for 52% of sales, up from just 16% last year, with the region's top Android smartphone makers – Samsung and HTC – significantly increasing their combined market share.

 

But the region is also witnessing the emergence of a strong low-end smartphone market, let by new smartphone players such as Micromax, Karbonn and G'Five. ABI expects the region's smartphone market to be shaken up by these new challengers.

 

Tablets are also proving popular in Asia, with ABI calculating that 7.8 million of the devices will ship this year.

 

In separate research, mobile app market intelligence company research2guidance calculated that the Android Market hit the 500,000 published app milestone, compared to around 600,000 for Apple's App Store.

 

But the firm added that a larger percentage of apps were eventually removed from the Market than the App Store – 37% compared to 24% - due to the lower threshold for admittance to Google's offering.