Latest report from research firm IDC indicates that global smartphones sales are declining and worldwide smartphone shipment will slow down to around 19 percent in 2014, and most probably into single digits by 2017, after hitting a strong 39 percent in 2013.
The market tracker forecast sales of around 1.2 billion smartphones in 2014, but with a rather conservative one as the research firm forecasts a very negligible growth in mature and near-saturated markets such as North America and Europe and a possible slight contraction in Japan as well. However most of the growth is expected to take place in emerging markets, where consumers will be looking for cheap and low-cost smartphones.
Ryan Reith, IDC’s program director, said 2014 will see ‘rapidly declining price points, creating challenging environments in which to turn a profit’.
This year will “be an enormous transition year” for the smartphone market, Reith said.
According to IDC, this saturation of the smartphone market will force handset makers and manufacturers to cut prices just to turn a profit. In fact the average selling prices of smartphones are expected to drop from $335 in 2013 to $260 by 2018.
“Not only will growth decline more than ever before, but the driving forces behind smartphone adoption are changing,” Reith said in a statement.
“New markets for growth bring different rules to play by and ‘premium’ will not be a major factor in the regions driving overall market growth.”
IDC’s Ramon Llamas said that smartphone vendors and carriers will have to work collaboratively to reach ‘untapped demand within emerging markets.’
“Last year we saw a total of 322.5 million smartphone units ship for under $150 and that number will continue to grow going forward. We’ve already seen numerous smartphone announcements targeting this price band this year, with some as low as $25.”
IDC predicts Google’s Android will maintain its lead with more than 75 per cent of global sales into 2018, and Apple to stand next at the second position with a market share near 15 per cent.
The research firm says Windows Phone platform will grow the fastest, nearly doubling its market share from this year to 2018.
However, the research firm predicts BlackBerry’s market share to be less than one per cent in 2014 and 0.3 per cent by 2018.
