By Zeba Fatima

The booming global demand for smartphones seen in 2011 is set to continue this year, GfK predicts.

Latest forecast data from GfK Digital World, produced in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), estimates these devices will account for 22% of global technical device retail sales in 2012. This would represent a 4% rise on 2011, highlighting the growing popularity of mobile working devices.

GfK Digital World has tipped global spending on consumer technology devices will surpass US $1 trillion in 2012 for the first time, increasing by 5% over 2011’s figure of US $993 billion.

According to the report, smartphones are helping boost sales of the digital sector in general, which includes consumer electronics, IT and telecommunications.

"The popularity of smartphones is constantly impacting on a number of key international industries," GfK Digital World stated.

"In particular, there is an interesting development within photo as smartphones are enriching and competing against the digital camera market."

Global figures show that in the first nine months of 2011, only 10% of digital cameras were equipped with Wi-Fi, however for mobile handsets, the share was 24% and for smartphones it was even better (87%). For uploading photos to social networking sites, direct internet access is a major selling point.

Digital cameras offer added features

However, camera features for mobile handsets are still not at the same level as higher end photography equipment (HD video,analog zoom etc.). While in some instances they may cut out demand for low end cameras, at the same time, there is an increasing demand for high end cameras as consumers are becoming more enthusiastic about photography. This trend could be driven by people using camera functions on smartphones for the first time.

As a consequence, SLR cameras and compact cameras with interchangeable lenses grew globally by 17% in the first nine months 2011 and so outperformed the market for digital cameras.

However, with an increase of 81% in volume, smartphones were still significantly ahead and are likely to enjoy further growth in 2012. GfK forecasts a sales volume of approximately 600 million units, which equals an increase of 39% versus 2011.