Although we are seeing more smartphones enter the American marketplace, the devices have long been accepted by European consumers and it will take a while before the U.S. catches up.
According to a new study from Telephia, in the third quarter of 2006, smartphone penetration equalled nearly 9% in Europe as opposed to less than 4% in the U.S. Surprisingly, Italy is the leading market for smartphones at a nearly 20% penetration rate, followed by Spain at 9.5%, and the UK with 7.5%.
As smartphones continue to lower in price, along with the assorted data services that one can purchase, we will see more U.S. consumers purchasing these devices in the days ahead.
1. All this really tells us is that "high end Nokia phones are still popular in Italy"
Most Europeans get "smartphones" because they want a Nokia phone, not because they want something "smart". Even if a given Nokia device was powered by Fortran or a hamster on wheel rather than Symbian OS, 90% would still buy it
Posted at 7:30PM on Dec 13th 2006 by Dean Bubley