Growth of the global mobile phone market will slow to 1.4 per cent for 2012, the lowest annual growth rate in three years, research firm IDC said Tuesday. IDC said in a release it projects a record number of smartphone shipments, as a segment of mobile phones, during the 2012 holiday season. Vendors will ship more than 1.7 billion mobile phones in 2012 compared to 2.2 billion in 2016, IDC forecast. The firm said smartphone market growth is being driven partly by carriers' “steep device subsidies,” particularly in economic markets where mobile providers resell smartphones, as well as a larger selections of smartphones in emerging markets selling for less than $250 US each. "Sluggish economic conditions worldwide have cast a pall over the mobile phone market this...