Atkinson says countries with a growing middle class will embrace smartphones much faster. "In developing countries, that's going to be a longer process where you'll have perhaps business people, farmers, small business people, professionals who will be the first adopters - the doctors, government officials - and then it will slowly as you get more apps (applications) slowly permeate out probably," he said.

Atkinson says Apple's iPhone faces growing competition from other companies, such as Google, that make their own smartphones. With competition, experts expect prices to drop, making smartphones much more accessible to consumers around the world.