Sony Ericsson ascends phone-sales ladder

North America also saw a shakeup of market leaders, as Motorola ceded its top spot to Samsung after four years of dominating its home market. Total handset sales in the third quarter increased 4.5% year-over-year to 45 million units, driven largely by smartphone takeup. In fact, smartphones may be the saving grace of North America as economic conditions deteriorate. A study by J Gold Associates found that enterprise and small business spending on smartphones is likely to increase dramatically in the next three years at the expense of the laptop. A survey of 340 small and large companies revealed they would expect to double usage of smartphones in the next three years and triple the number of corporate applications available on those devices.

Meanwhile Ovum predicted that the US wireless industry will be more insulated from an economic downturn than other industries. Except for Sprint, few other operators reported negative effects from the softening economy, and AT&T and Verizon Wireless continue to report high rates in data revenue growth. US operators have also aggressively pursued two-year contracts, which will keep much of its subscriber base intact through 2009. Ovum projected that wireless connections in the US would increase by 6.3% in 2009, bringing it over the 90% saturation mark, while overall service revenues will also grow 6.3%.