ABIresearch has concluded that mobile shipments rose by 15.1% quarter on quarter in Q4, 2009. Impressive figures considering the recent economic woes.

“2009 may have started with a whimper but by 4Q-2009 the global mobile handset market ended with a pretty reasonable bang,” says Jake Saunders, Vice-President for Forecasting at ABI Research. “We estimate 336.5 million handsets were shipped in 4Q-2009, up 15.1% QoQ.” Competition continued to squeeze handset ASPs. In 4Q-2009, shipment-based ASPs were down 2% to US$117.55.

“Obama’s stimulus package certainly helped save the mobile handset industry,” Saunders notes. “Renewed consumer confidence in the second half of 2009 meant that shipments for the whole year only shrank 4.5% to 1.153 billion. Dire scenarios were mooted in early 2009. There is cautious optimism about 2010 despite the fragile nature of the global recovery. ABI Research forecasts shipments to expand to 1.2 billion handsets in 2010.”