04 Oct 04

Clamshells will account for 37% of handset sales worldwide in 2004, rising steadily to account for the majority of sales by the end of 2007 according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

Clamshell creep has been diffusing from the Asia Pacific region to North America and Western Europe since the late 1990s, and its badly needed injection of end-user choice-options is well timed to match strong demand in mature replacement markets in these regions.

However,?the end of the bar is not nigh. Bar form factors will account for 6 in 10 handset sales worldwide, or 399 million units, in 2004.

Bars will account for the larger percentage of device sales through 2006 ? the design offers the advantage of lower production costs, which are critical for price-sensitive, prepaid-dominant markets like those in Europe and emerging markets like Brazil, China, and Russia.

In addition, demand from bar-preferred users, like those in the UK and India, will support bar-based sales in the medium-term 2 to 3-year period.

In addition, bar design innovation, enabling richer feature phone usage, like hinge-based LCDs and keypads, will afford similar production efficiencies to pure bar designs.