Smartphones to eclipse desktop PC sales by 2011

Smartphones will surpass global PCs in sales by the end of 2011, another milestone in the development of more portable computing.

RBC analyst Mike Abramsky estimates that shipments of both devices will approach 400 million per year at that time, PCWorld reports.

The shift has traditional computer manufacturers scrambling to enter the mobile space. While Apple already has a leading position in the market, Dell, Acer, HP, Microsoft and Google all have their eyes on the mobile arena.

Meanwhile, sales of the desktop PC continue to slump, having already been surpassed by laptop sales in Q3 2008.

Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 6.1 percent decrease from the same time a year ago, according to Gartner figures. But smartphone sales surpassed 40 million units, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year -- the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market, according to the article.

Part of the difficulty entering the mobile marketplace is the disruption it has caused on traditional computing ecosystems, led by the powerful iPhone-iTunes system.

Abramsky was bear on market leader Nokia's future, but bullish on Research In Motion, manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry line of smartphones.

For everyone else, the lay of the mobile land is still up for grabs. Asus has begun selling a Windows Mobile smartphone, the Nuvifone M20, in Taiwan. A Dell smartphone is expected to arrive to market in coming months. Acer has plans for a trio of smartphones.