A briefing from IDC notes that in 2008, 2.6 million units were shipped in Western Europe under operators' brands, with a total value of $566 million. This represents only a small percentage of the total Western Europe mobile phones market value, and ODM handsets accounted for only 1.4% of total unit shipments in the market.

"IDC expects the ODM market to mark a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% from 2008 to 2013, although this will come from positive growth in traditional mobile phones (TMPs) and negative growth in converged mobile devices (CMD)," said Jonathan Arbor, Senior Research Analyst for European Consumer Wireless and Mobile Communications.

"CMDs are expected to decline at a CAGR of 16.8%, while TMPs will grow at a CAGR of 10.6%. Despite the opportunity for operators and the interest from end users, it is clear that ODM CMDs will lose ground to manufacturer-branded devices."