Last month ABI Research predicted into the future – all the way into the year 2016 – and stated that “Over the next five years, touchscreens will be as pervasive in smartphones as Wi-Fi chipsets are today, reaching 97% of all smartphones by 2016”. 97% is a huge number considering the number of smartphone shipments is expected to reach the one billion per year mark in 2016. The stat that ABI gave was good to think about, but could have gone a bit deeper – perhaps giving insight into how many of those 97% represent only touchscreen devices and how many are a combo of touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard.
Taking it a small step further is Juniper Research. They came out with a report that says in 2016 we’ll see the total shipments of touchscreen-only smartphones grow to 700 million per year, representing 72% of total shipments. This also means that the other 28% are QWERTY smartphones with shipments of about 300 million a year in 2016. Another stat that Juniper noted was about 3D devices, currently LG and HTC have released a 3D capable device, the Optimus 3D and the EVO 3D – but Juniper predicts that 3D-enabled shipments will reach 80 million by 2016, grabbing 8% of the smartphone market.
Daniel Ashdown of Juniper said that “Touchscreen displays not only provide a superior user experience for many activities, but free-up space on the device for a larger display: that extra 2 to 3 inches can make a world of difference in the range of activities that can be performed more comfortably on the Smartphone.”
5 years is a long time away, but we’re already seeing people abandon the QWERTY smartphone and opt for a touchscreen device. These days were it’s the early adopter who are testing various sizes of smartphones. 3.5-inch displays, 4-inches, 5.3 – manufacturers are making them all. We currently have a poll going on that asks “What’s the optimal smartphone screen size?”, 4-inches seems to be the most popular so far. Check it out here and have your say.
Source: Juniper Research
Via: IntoMobile
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