The global market researchers have found that the sales of smartphone are surging, despite the wavering economy and the disappointing mobile-phone sales at the end of year 2008.

Gartner’s survey, released on Monday, has articulated that the sale of 314.7 million units of mobile-phones was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008, which was 4.6 percent down from the same quarter a year earlier. However, the survey has found that the sales of smartphones still grew.

Gartner researchers have predicted that by 2013, smartphones will double their share of all cell phones worldwide to about 20 percent. The researchers have stated that that level has already been achieved in North America. The smartphones like Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion's Storm and the Android G1 have helped smartphone sales to represent about 20 percent of sales in the region.

The NPD Group’s survey, released on Tuesday, has stated that “a quarter of all handsets sold in the United States during the fourth quarter were smartphones. Statistically, the NPD survey has articulated that about 23 % of all handset sales in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2008 were smartphones; the sales were up from 12 percent of all handset sales in the fourth quarter of 2007.

According to the NPD survey, as the sales of smartphones surged, their prices dropped. The average drop in price of a smartphone was 23 percent, from $216 in the 4th Q of 2007 to $167 in 4th Q of 2008. Apple's new iPhone 3G, priced at $199 with a two-year service contract with AT&T, was the major contributor in surging the sales of smarphones and bringing their prices down.

The NPD survey has found that the smarphone buyers are comfortable with $200 price range, which includes the smarphones such as RIM’s Blackberry Storm on Verizon Wireless, the T-Mobile G1, and Palm Pre from Sprint Nextel. The survey has also noted that smartphones are preferred more because of high-speed data services.

In-Stat stated that smartphones are attracting more buyers because of the ability to download new applications. According to In-Stat’s prediction, smartphones with the Linux operating system could see the most growth, though they could be the second-best in volume behind Symbian. Smartphones with the Linux OS could beat Windows Mobile, RIM and the iPhone.

Net Applications’ survey has noted that smartphones are getting more buyers because of mobile Web usage. According to Net Applications, iPhone leads in mobile Web usage; iPhone users make up two-thirds of the mobile browsing market. The phones using Java ME to browse make up 9 percent of the market, followed by Windows Mobile users that represent 7 percent. Android users are responsible for 6.3 percent of mobile browsing, and Symbian phone users represent 6.2 percent of the mobile browsing market.