[April 15, 2010] Singapore sees high demand for smartphones Tweet SINGAPORE, Apr 15, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Figures for the last six months have shown booming demand for do-it-all smartphones in Singapore, local media reported on Thursday. Over the last six months, smartphones like the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry Bold and HTC Hero -- which allow users to check email, watch YouTube videos, edit Powerpoint presentations and perform other computer-based activities -- made up an unprecedented 70 percent to 80 percent of all handset sales, according to the three Singapore telecoms-SingTel, StarHub and M1. In comparison, such handsets account for only 15 percent of all phones sold globally, research firm IDC said. Another research firm, Gartner, put global smartphone sales at 14 percent of all handset sales. One reason such handphones are gaining in popularity is because smartphones offer their users a better way to access the applications that are often used. Other contributing factors include the more attractively-priced subscription plans offered by operators, and network upgrades that offered users faster data speeds. Considering that smartphones require an additional 3G data plan that cost up to 40 Singapore dollars (29 Singapore dollars) a month, a smartphone user will shell out nearly 1,000 Singapore dollars (719 U.S. dollars) more over a typical two-year contract compared to a lower-end phone user, using an estimated calculation based on telcom's current charges. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]