Asia to lead demand for smartphones

A “duh!” article? Maybe, but there are some interesting stats buried in “Gadget-hungry Asia to lead demand for smartphones” including:

According to Strategy Analytics, Asia Pacific will buy a third of all smartphones in 2004, outstripping North America’s 27 percent share of sales and Western Europe’s 28 percent. By 2008, Asia’s share of smartphone sales is expected to rise to 36 percent, far exceeding the 23 percent expected for North America and 24 percent in Western Europe.

and

So far, smartphones have been a niche market. A total of 11.2 million phones shipped worldwide in 2003, just 2.1 percent of total handphone sales. But the figure is seen growing to 109.9 million units by 2008, about 14 percent of the total, data from Strategy showed.

Repeat after me: PDAs are dead, long live the smartphone!