Consumer demand for environmentally sustainable mobile devices will be the primary driver behind the growth of “green” handsets, which could -? in the most transformational scenario – see global shipments grow to 485 million units by 2014, according to a report from Juniper Research.
The report offers three scenario-based forecasts (incremental, progressive and transformational), and suggests that even in the most conservative incremental situation numbers will grow from a quarter of million shipments in 2009 to more than 105 million by 2014.
The report revealed that the average mobile user is responsible for around 25kg (55 pounds) of CO2 emissions per year, a collective total of 93Mt (megatonnes) of CO2 globally at the end of 2008. But with a number of challenges facing vendors and operators, such as the Kyoto Protocol, companies across the industry are under pressure to significantly reduce these average emissions by a far greater extent over the next five years, Juniper said.
In another measure of environmental friendliness and health-issues related to mobile handsets, CNET currently maintains “Top-20” lists of the US cellphones that give off the most and the least? radiation.
