US based information technology research company, Gartner has forecasted that a total of 1, 895.1 million units of mobile phones will be shipped in 2014. This represents a 4.9 percent increase over the 1,807 million units shipped in 2013.
According to Gartner, the growth in 2014 is projected to come from the lower end of the premium phone market and the higher end of the basic phone market.
Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner says “While the lack of compelling hardware innovation marginally extended replacement cycles in 2013, we’ve witnessed an upgrade path in the emerging markets. Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe have all upgraded their phones, which will help to compensate for mature market weakness in the near term.”
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