That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the age where phones do nothing outside of calling and receiving calls is receding. The folks at In-Stat have forecast today that the unit shipments for smartphones will reach nearly 850 million by 2015, with more than half of US handsets being smartphones by 2012. That’s wacky amazing considering there was no such thing as a phone without a wire in our lifetimes.

Principal Analyst Allen Nogee notes “There are several critical factors that drive smartphone success. These include a powerful browser, a wide variety of apps, an easy to navigate user interface, and a good keyboard or touch screen.  Additionally, other intangible attributes, such as being ‘fashionable’ and that ‘your friends have one’ are important.” The report noted also that Android will maintain its momentum and will continue to be the leading OS in the states, and that, surprisingly, considering the undeniably small amount of news we hear about it, Symbian handsets aren’t dead yet and will continue to be the second highest unit shipments of all smartphone OSs.

Check out the full press release below:

More Than Half of US Handset Shipments Will be Smartphones by 2012.  Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Move Toward 1 Billion by 2015, Says In-Stat
 
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. January 24, 2011—The demand for advanced mobile handsets that contain significant processing power, robust memory,  large screens, and open operating systems has dominated the mobile phone market for the past several years.  Smartphones will continue to dominate into the future.  In-Stat (www.in-stat.com) forecasts that unit shipments of smartphones will be nearly  850 million by 2015, as they move toward the 1 billion shipment mark.
 
“There are several critical factors that drive smartphone success,” says Allen Nogee, Principal Analyst.  “These include a powerful browser, a wide variety of apps, an easy to navigate user interface, and a good keyboard or touch screen.  Additionally, other intangible attributes, such as being ‘fashionable’ and that ‘your friends have one’ are important.”

Recent In-Stat research found:
• More than half of US handset shipments will be smartphones by 2012.
• Android is maintaining its momentum and will continue to be the leading OS.  The demise of Symbian has been greatly overstated.  On a global basis, annual unit shipments of Symbian-based handsets will continue to grow, resulting in Symbian having the second highest unit shipments of all the smartphone OSs.
• The smartphone OS war is heating up, as relatively new or renewed entrants such as MeeGo, Bada, WebOS, and others join a very crowded market.
• By 2015, over two thirds of smartphones will still be WCDMA-based.  LTE smartphones will comprise only a small minority of annual handset shipments, even in 2015.
• The display and baseband/apps processor are the two high cost items in the bill of materials.  Other significant items include memory, camera, software and licensing, and case and manufacturing. 
Recent In-Stat research Smartphones: A Worldwide View (#IN1004729WH) is a 70-slide PowerPoint deliverable covering the worldwide smartphone market from technology through operating systems including:
• Forecasts of smartphone unit sales segmented by OS, as well as attach rates for touch screens, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and accelerometers through 2015.
• Analysis of smartphone features, including operating systems, touch-screens, applications, image sensors, and wireless connectivity options.
• Examination of smartphone components and bill of materials.

About In-Stat
 
In-Stat’s market intelligence combines technical, market and end-user research and database models to analyze the Mobile Internet and Digital Entertainment ecosystems. Our insights are derived from a deep understanding of technology impacts, nearly 30 years of history in research and consulting, and direct relationships with leading players in each of our core markets. In-Stat provides its research through reports, annual subscriptions, consulting and advisory services to inform critical decisions. Technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, service providers and media companies worldwide rely on In-Stat to support critical business, product and technology decisions.