Phones Over PCs

Your computer will soon be a minority.

According to Gartner Research, smartphone sales will more than triple to nearly a half a billion units by 2012, up from 139.3 million in 2008.  This represents a massive 300% growth in a mere four years.  Conversely, the PC market will only see 50% growth, to 443 million units from 290.8 million in the same period.

More than a sea change from computing habits, it also represents a change in the power structure of the computing world to come.  Whereas Intel runs virtually all of the PCs on the market, it has no such dominance in the handheld market.  Additionally, while Microsoft is still the original 800 lb. gorilla of Silicon Valley, having controlled the computer market for decades with its operating systems – from DOS to Windows, it has stumbled in the mobile market and faces the behemoth that it the iPhone as well as the Android handsets – including Google’s Nexus One.

So the big companies of this decade may not be Dell or HP; they may be the companies that make all of the capacitive touch-screens.

(via Bloomberg News)