The handsets, which are predicted to play a particularly important role in developing economies, currently cost around $150 (£95), according to Juniper Research.
With lower-cost integrated circuits used in their construction over the coming five years, however, this could fall to $80 each on average by 2015.
"Shipments of entry-level smartphones are set to exceed 185 million globally by the year 2015, driven initially by operators' own-brand devices," the analyst states.
This particular trend is part of operators' attempts to increase usage on their own networks by providing handsets directly and, along with lower pricing, could boost the total number of entry-level smartphones in use worldwide.
Published by Juniper Research on Thursday (January 27th), its report Low Cost Handsets & Entry Level Smartphones assesses the likely future performance of the market in eight key regions located all over the world.
Posted by Michael Lowe
