Many businesses want to go protect the environment and go green but, according to Sprint's CEO, customers do not care about green phones.
The mobile phone market has been growing at a very rapid pace and, according to a report posted by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped around 432.1 million mobile phones in Q2 2013 compared to 407.7 million units in the Q2 of 2012. Moreover, the Q2 2013 mobile phone shipments were also slightly higher than the Q1 2013 total, which amounted to 428.8 million units.
Several smaller mobile phone vendors such as Alcatel and Huawei also experienced double or triple growth rate in the market. The overall growth rate in the market segment is also expected to increase in the near future.
"Market opportunities exist at all levels, including the high end," said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "While Samsung and Apple accounted for significant share of the overall market, they were not the only vendors active in the high end of the market, and recent device introductions and upcoming launches signal more vendors targeting this space. Comparisons will certainly be made to the flagship Galaxy and iPhone models, but clearly the competition refuses to be shut out altogether."
However, it seems that there is very little drive in the market to produce greener, or environment-friendly, handsets. The reason that customers do not care about greener phones may be one of the reasons that even though the mobile phone industry is growing, there is either no or very less initiative by vendors to produce greener handset.
"I wish consumers were demanding us to be greener, because they really haven't yet," said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint.
In 2009, Sprint produced its first sustainable phone, which used less energy and also featured recycled plastic. However, customers were not very attracted to the mobile phone.
It will be interesting to see if more businesses work towards creating greener mobile phones and if customers are attracted to greener handsets when compared to normal devices.
