According to a Wednesday report by IT research and analyst firm Gartner, while the sales of mobile phones reported a drop in this year's first quarter, the ongoing downturn failed to dampen the global sales of smartphones - with Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) driving growth in the smartphone market.

The recession period is having its toll on semi- conductor market as well. The sales dropped to 9.8 percent in November 2008.  In other words, worldwide semiconductor sales fell to 20.8 billion dollars in November. This means decrease of 9.8 percent as compared to the sales in November during the  last year.