According to IDC mobile phone shipment will drop by more than two percent in 2009, the research company has said that this would be the largest drop since 2001 following Nokia (NYSE:NOK) predicting a decline.

IDC has blamed the global economic crisis and that component supplier, network operators and handset makers as well as the consumers were all worried about the outlook for 2009.

It was also noted that the announcement of Media Tek (PINK:MDTKF), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) and mobile phone chip company Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) reduced their volume of manufacturing. With Nokia also predicting a decline the mobile industry is starting to panic according to IDC.

Although analysts at IDC said that despite the problems in the entire mobile phone market, the sale of the smartphone will grow in 2009 by 9 percent, mainly due to the fact that they will be available cheaper for consumers.

Source: theinquirer