Smartphones to comprise around 98 per cent of handset sales by 2020: Market research firm, iGR

By 2020, smarphones will comprise around 98 per cent of handset sales a study by US-based market research firm iGR has projected.

''Many factors are driving the global increase in smartphone sales. First and foremost is the decrease in smartphone prices, which is making them more accessible in developing markets,'' marketwired.com said citing the statement of Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR, on Tuesday.

''The consumers in these developing markets are increasingly moving towards smartphones, which provide a portable, data-driven lifestyle,'' he added.

Thanks to the development, out of a total of almost two billion mobile handsets that were sold during 2015, smartphone sales came in significantly greater than those of non-smartphones, according to iGR's 'Global Handset and Smartphone Sales Forecast, 2015-2020: Still More Smartphones'.

According to union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad mobile phone production in the country had more than doubled to 110 million in 2015-16.

Additionally, there were also 16 new mobile manufacturing units had also been set up during the financial year.

''In 2014-15, the number mobile units manufactured in the country was 5.4 crores, which has more than doubled to 11 crores in 2015-16. After the duty rationalization in the last budget, 16 new mobile manufacturing units have been set up in this financial year,'' Prasad said in New Delhi during a media interaction yesterday.