Mobile workers to dump laptops for handhelds

BRIGHT ANALYSTS AT In-Stat reckon smartphones will increasingly replace laptops over the coming years.

The bean jugglers estimate the smartphone market will grow at more than a 30 per cent compound annual growth rate for the next five years. Smartphone will take increasing share of the overall phone market that is otherwise growing in single digits.

The unit volume of smartphone shipments globally already exceeds the unit sales for laptops.

Smartphone use will grow mostly as a laptop replacement, according to the In-Stat report, Smartphones 2007: The ARPU Generation Machine.

Users are experiencing "significant value" from their smartphones, and are downloading more applications and generating higher usage as measured by average revenue per user for wireless carriers.

"Because of the value users are finding, organisations are slowly taking ownership of smartphones and data applications used for business purposes," said In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes.

He said organisations, "are finding it more expedient and economical to treat wireless voice and data services as a business expense when they use smartphones." µ