One in five handsets purchased in Asia is a smartphone : GFK Asia

One in five handsets purchased in Asia is a smartphone, according to the third quarter report by GFK Asia.

Over the last 12 months, from June 2009 to July 2010, more than 4.7 million units of smartphones worth US$1.48 billion were retailed. Smartphones now offer nearly half of the entire handset sales pie.

“Smartphones are the key drivers of the telecommunications industry at the moment,” said Gerard Tan, regional account director for telecommunications.

He added that GFK’s retail audit shows an almost three-fold increase in value of the industry, compared over the third quarter of last year and this year.

The report also found that Symbian, previously the leading operating system since the second half of last year, has been overtaken by Android as the most popular smartphone operating system in Asia.

“However, it is interesting to note the difference in OS (Operating System) trends when we look at findings in North and Southeast Asia separately,” Tan said.

In North Asia, namely, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan, the smartphone OS competition is perhaps at its most intense, as OS shares vigorously in reaction to strategic and tactical initiatives from major manufacturers.

Growth of Android started escalating at the beginning of this year, and overtook the iPhone OS, which was the second most popular platform in the second quarter of the year.

In the Southeast Asia region, which covers Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, Symbian has been the leading smartphone OS and continues its lead albeit gradually declining sales.

Since the beginning of the year, Android, RIM and iPhone OS have been enjoying gains in the smartphone segment at the expense of Symbian OS.