IDC Projects Smartphone Shipments to Rise Less Than 1%
30 November 2016 - 10:46AM
Dow Jones News
By Betsy Morris
The growth in global smartphone shipments ground to a near halt
this year, according to research firm International Data Corp., in
the latest sign that the mobile-phone boom is petering out.
Companies will ship a record 1.45 billion smartphones in 2016,
according to estimates by IDC. That is an annual growth rate of
less than 1%, down sharply from 10.4% last year and 47% as recently
as 2012.
Shipment increases in some pockets of China, India and Indonesia
and other emerging markets continue as new users buy low-cost
smartphones and convert to faster 4G wireless technology. Shipments
of 4G smartphones are expected to grow 21.3% to 1.17 billion units
this year. In India, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. is trying to
quickly change the market, IDC said, by offering data and
smartphones at very low rates.
But that growth is offset by a slowdown in mature markets like
the U.S., which with an 11.4% share of shipments is the world's
second largest after the Asia/Pacific region, according to IDC.
Since U.S. wireless carriers moved away from offering discounted
smartphones to lure customers, U.S. mobile phone owners "have
become much more aware of what the phone is worth and aren't
switching so fast," said Anthony Scarsella, an IDC research
manager. They are delaying upgrades, he says, saying "this phone is
good enough for me."
The accelerating slowdown this year comes in part from an
estimated 11% decrease in shipments of Apple Inc.'s iPhone -- the
first full year of declining shipments for the device since it made
its debut in 2007. Apple held about 14% of the global smartphone
market this year, IDC said.
IDC estimated shipments this year of smartphones running
Alphabet Inc.'s Android software, which now account for 85% of the
market, will increase 5% over a year earlier. Phones employing
software from Microsoft Corp. and others account for less than 1%
of the market, it said.
Write to Betsy Morris at betsy.morris@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2016 18:31 ET (23:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024