Smartphones to beat projections, account for half of all mobile phones by 2013

It wasn’t supposed to happen until 2015. Smartphones accounted for 35% of the worldwide market last year but they are projected to jump to over half of the market by next year.

According to AllThingsD:

“This represents a major upgrade for the outlook compared to a year ago, when smartphones weren’t expected to take the lead until 2015,” IHS senior analyst Wayne Lam said in a statement. “Over the past 12 months, smartphones have fallen in price, and a wider variety of models [has] become available, spurring sales of both low-end smartphones in regions like Asia-Pacific, as well as midrange to high-end phones in the United States and Europe.”

The odd part is that a separate news report today in VentureBeat says that Foxconn International, the smartphone maker that produces handsets for companies like Nokia and HTC, is reporting $226 million in losses the first half of this year. Many are familiar with their parent company, Foxconn Technology, as the producer of the iPhone.

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“Smartphone” image courtesy of Shutterstock.