Total sales of smartphones will increase to 491.9 million units by 2012, more than triple from the 139.3 million level reached in 2008, according to a Connecticut-based research firm.

To demonstrate the growing demand for smartphones at all levels, a recent article from Bloomberg News compared these numbers with the 443.1 million PC units projected for sale by 2012, to grow from the 2008 figure of 290.8 million.

The Bloomberg report cited Gartner research to make that claim and added that the demand for iPhones and Google’s Nexus One will fuel this growth.

Analysts told the business news providers smartphone sales have the trajectory to exceed that of more traditional phones in the upcoming years.

“Smartphones are headed towards that billion-unit category that handsets are in today,” said Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat, based in Arizona. “The smartphone is the billion-unit pot of gold that everyone wants.”

Part of the reason for such growth is the increasing affordability of smartphones and cost saving solutions like mobile management, experts say. A recent report by iStockAnalyst says that smartphone pricing will become ultra-competitive this year.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Managing Mobile Devices News, Mobile Strategy and Policy News, Understanding Mobility Management News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Please follow us @Visage_Mobile on Twitter. We also encourage you to join MOM’s Kitchen, a professional business network for Mobility Operations Managers (MOMs). This online community will allow you to explore ideas, debate issues and define best practices and benchmarks for the emerging discipline of enterprise mobility management.