The mobile phone market has been projected to rebound from the "nearly flat" growth experienced in 2012, according to new figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The IDC published the mobile phone market is expected to grow 7.3 percent worldwide, which is up from 1.2 percent in 2012.
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The IDC noted the increase is part of the strong demand across all regions, thus smartphone shipments are projected to top one billion units for the first time within a year. The 7.3 percent growth was initially forecasted to be a 5.8 percent increase and the change occurred due to the sub-$200 smartphone market.
"Two years ago, the worldwide smartphone market flirted with shipping half a billion units for the first time - to double that in just two years highlights the ubiquity that smartphones have achieved," said IDC's Mobile Phone Research Manager Ramon Llamas. "The smartphone has gone from being a cutting-edge communications tool to becoming an essential component in the everyday lives of billions of consumers."
According to Llamas, the smartphone shipments growth will keep Google's Android and Apple's iOS as the top two mobile operating systems, respectively.
"What remains to be seen is how Windows Phone and BlackBerry's respective futures will play out pending their recent announcements," added Llamas. "Windows Phone has inched ahead of BlackBerry during the first half of 2013, and we believe that will extend into the future. However, overall shipments will continue to trail those of Android and iOS."
The IDC has forecasted Android to maintain its first place position as the world's most utilized smartphone operating system with 75.3 percent, but it has forecasted a drop to 68.3 percent by 2017.
iOS is expected to see gains by 2017 by one percentage point to 17.9 percent from 2013's 16.9 percent.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's Windows Phone has the most projected growth from 3.9 percent this year to 10.2 percent by 2017.
BlackBerry is expected to drop by one percentage point between 2013 and 2017, from 2.7 percent to 1.7 percent.
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