Report: Android’s Global Dominance Will Get Help From Significant Sales of Cheap Smartphones [Smart Cheapphones?]
We’ve long said that the key to Android’s long-term success would be choice. Keyboard or no keyboard? Big screen or small screen? Camera on the front of 4G? Do you want a fingerprint scanner? The ability to hook your phone up to your TV using an HDMI cable? Or even the ability to use your phone to power a web-based netbook? Choice is extremely important to a consumer at the point of sale.
And now DigiTimes is reporting that Android will see tremendous growth due to perhaps the most important choice of all when considering any purchase – price. Android phones can be had at all sorts of price points. Here in the US, you can get a cheap or free smartphone on a cheap plan that does a lot of what the fastest and biggest phones on the market do. And you don’t even have to be tethered to a contract to get a phone for under $200 at some carriers.
Then there’s the UK where you can get any phone for “free” at the point of sale. (Granted you’ll be subject to a pricey tariff.) The research firm reported that that 2.5 to 3 million sub-$150 (after subsidization) Android handsets were shipped in 2010. In 2011? That number will increase to 20-25 million and should make up for a pretty sizable slize of a very large pie – up to 15% of 165 million Android handsets expected to ship in 2011.