As the high end of the smartphone market becomes saturated, all of the growth will come from the low end.
A report today from Taiwanese Digitimes shows some explosive estimates for $150 and cheaper, contract free Android phones. Specifically, the paper says it expects to see 20-25 million entry level Android devices ship in 2011, up from 2.5-3 million in 2010.
Global smartphone sales will hike 54.5% from 2010 to 445 million units in 2011, of which 165 million or 37.1% will be Android models, surpassing Symbian to become the largest smartphone platform.
Most of those who can afford a $400-$700 smartphone have already purchased a device. However, as smartphones go down in price to where high-end feature phones are priced today, traditional feature-phone buyers will move into the smartphone camp.
While mature markets accounted for more than half of the 2010 global sales of entry-level Android smartphones, emerging markets will dominate the handset segment in 2011. The China market will see demand for 10-13 million entry-level Android smartphones in 2011.
Google (GOOG) is currently activating more than 300,000 devices a day or about 10 million a month.
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