The Globe and Mail reports:

Demonstrating the intense fluctuations coming to Canada’s wireless industry in 2010, new research suggests the next six months will see 55 per cent of Canadians buying a new handset, likely a smart phone.

[...]

Of those who said they would buy a handset, 28 per cent wanted a touch-screen smart phone and 19 per cent wanted a Qwerty-keyboard, likely for easy texting, the study showed. Both of these growing habits – texting and data use – have gradually eroded the time spent talking on phones, analysts said, in part to the detriment of large wireless carriers.

Canadians are increasingly using smart phones and laptop data sticks to connect to the Web, according to data collected by Toronto’s Convergence Consulting Inc., which estimates 30 per cent of wireless subscribers will be using such devices by the end of 2010 and around 50 per cent by the start of 2014.

Emphasis by me. We believe they’re massively underestimating smartphone penetration by the start of 2014, as that’s 4 years away – forever in an industry where things get cheaper and better every quarter.

Via Alec Saunders.