Overall card solicitations remain well off their highs of 2005.

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Given that commodities have sold off during the past couple of weeks, the overall market has held up rather well.

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That's how 2012 finished off as well according to Gartner, with cellphone purchases down 1.7 percent overall from 2011, but sales of higher-IQ models up 38.3 percent year-on-year.

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