After suffering a number of setbacks in the wake of the global economic crisis, the global handset market is set to maintain healthy growth in 2014.

Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service forecasts global handset sales will grow by 7% in 2014. Growth will mainly be driven by developing markets, with Asia Pacific, Central & Latin America and Africa Middle East forecast to the main contributors. The five largest country markets will be: China, India, United States, Brazil and Indonesia.

In many developing markets a significant proportion of the population do not yet own a mobile phone. You can now get good feature phones for very low prices and the entry price point for smartphones is getting lower by the day, so it’s easier than ever for people who earn little to get into the mobile phone market.