Environment-friendly handsets to drive growth

According to new research from Juniper Research, consumer demand for environmentally sustainable mobile devices will be the primary driver behind the growth of green handsets, which could see global shipments grow to 485 million units by 2014.

The scenario-based forecasts within Juniper Research's new report, Green Mobile Handsets & Applications: Strategies, Scenarios & Forecasts 2009-2014, also suggest that even with an incremental attitude shift by consumers, numbers will still grow from a quarter of million shipments in 2009 to over 105 million by 2014.

Dr Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research and lead author of the report, said, ''With manufacturers only now beginning to introduce green handsets, shipment volumes are relatively low in all cases. Moving forward, we should not expect to see production lines of completely 'green' phones, but a gradual move to introducing green elements throughout devices.''

The average mobile user is responsible for around 25kg of CO2 emissions per year, which collectively totalled 93 megatonnes of CO2 globally at the end of 2008.

With a number of challenges facing vendors and operators, such as the Kyoto Protocol, a concerted effort is required by companies across the industry to reduce these average emissions by a far greater extent over the next five years.

Further findings from the green handsets report includes:

• Network operators and handset vendors should increase their promotion of handset take-back initiatives, and increase their take-back targets
• Eco-applications offer the potential for the mobile industry to reduce CO2 emissions above and beyond its own direct and indirect emissions by exerting a positive influence on consumer behaviour

Juniper Research is a telecoms analyst firm specialising in the mobile and wireless sector with particular emphasis on business models, applications, content and device strategies. Juniper is headquartered in the UK and has been operational for seven years.