Half of us now own smart phones
HALF of us will own a smartphone before the year is out, sales figures are suggesting.
Sales of iPhones, Galaxys, HTCs and Blackberrys went through the roof at Christmas and are still heading into orbit.
"That's the word we're getting from operators, that there is huge uptake on smartphones," said Gerard O'Neill of Amarach, a leading consumer forecaster.
"I would say it will pass the 50 per cent mark at the end of this year."
"One in two devices being sold are Smartphones," a Vodafone Ireland spokeswoman said. Ireland's leading mobile provider has seen a "continued surge", with 530,000, or close to 25 per cent of its customers, choosing new, trendy mobiles.
The number of O2 customers with smartphones rose by 40 per cent in the last year. At present, 37 per cent of Irish adults own a smartphone, Amarach's research shows.
"This figure is growing rapidly," said Mr O'Neill. The European average is about 20 per cent, suggesting Irish consumers are early adopters of techy handsets, as we were of mobile phones in general.
This meteoric rise in uptake would be spurred even more if Dublin City Council follows through with plans to make WiFi freely available in the city, Mr O'Neill thinks.
"Wireless broadband is one of the big drivers of smartphone use," he adds.
By far the most popular device is the iPhone.
- Roisin Burke
