ViewSonic, a global provider of visual display products, has announced its plans to expand into the 3G smartphone industry. China will be the first region to carry the phones, followed by Europe and the Americas.

This marks ViewSonic's first product in the smartphone industry, but falls in line with the convergence of televisions, computers and mobile phones. "With 20 years of display experience this is a natural extension of our product expertise. This is an important strategic step for ViewSonic, as it allows us to apply our display technology to an even larger and rapidly growing worldwide market," said James Chu, Chairman and CEO, ViewSonic.

Speaking on the launch of smartphones by ViewSonic, Gautam Ghosh, Country Manager, ViewSonic India, said "Smartphones launch is a natural addition to our endeavor to complete our value chain of being a provider of cutting edge technology solutions to the world in display arena. We feel our foray into this category will help customers reap maximum benefit from the advancement in the convergence technology."

As per market estimates from iSuppli (March 2009 report), global smartphone unit shipments is estimated to be 192.3 million in 2009, up by 11.1 percent from 173.6 million in 2008. Furthermore, the scenario foresees a unit shipment Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21 percent from2008 to 2013.