It’s been the third consecutive year since 2017 when we will witness a further decline in the smartphone shipments. As per a new report from IDC, the smartphone shipments will drop by 0.8% in comparison with the last year. The smartphone shipments will dip to 1.39 billion this year. Although, the market seems to recover in the second half of 2019 with the year-on-year growth of 2.3%. Moreover, in the coming years, the smartphone industry will boom with a surge in smartphone volumes to 1.54 billion by 2023.
As per the report, the smartphone market is expected to be back on the growth path by the end of this year. 5G smartphones are also going to cater to the growth in the upcoming few years. IDC’s vice president, Ryan Reith has said that the reason behind the expected growth is still unknown. He further added that many reasons such as longer replacements cycles, competition from the Chinese market and various other reasons are the culprit behind sluggish growth in the past couple of years.
“The biggest question that remains unanswered is what will bring the smartphone industry back to growth,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “There is no question industry growth has been down for reasons that have already been identified – longer replacement cycles, a challenged China market, and geopolitical headwinds – but it is shortsighted to overlook the possibilities of some important technology advancements that are within reach with 5G probably being the most significant.”
In the year 2019, the industry is expected to witness new advancements with the introduction of foldable devices and 5G smartphones. Mainly, 5G phones are supposed to represent 0.5 percent of the total smartphones shipments among 1.395 billion smartphone volumes. Although, at snail’s pace the 5G shipments will only grow upto 26% in 2023. In other words out of 1541 billion of total shipments 26% percent will be 5G devices. In 2023, the year-on-year growth of smartphones will be at 1.7 percent.
This year is quite challenging for foldable devices. Speaking on the occasion, Sangeetika Srivastava, senior research analyst with IDC added that “Though the 5G developments and foldable screen buzz is yet to have a reality check from users, 2019 will be surely marked as a year of modernization in the smartphone market.”
Many big manufacturers have already announced 5G smartphones. Samsung has launched its Galaxy Fold with other high-end specs, while Huawei has announced the Mate X foldable phone. Similarly, some Chinese smartphone manufacturers have also come up with foldable devices. These launches will surely cater 5G adoption growth in the upcoming few months. Further, many foldable devices are pending for launch by the end of this year.
Talking about 4G shipments, then it will slowly reduce to 1105 billion shipments in 2023 by -4.4% YoY growth from 1336 billion in 2019. In total, 4G market share will dip from 95.4% to 71.7% in 2023. The ageing 3G technology will shrink to 2% in 2023 from 4.1% current market share.
The stats are quite interesting if we take a look at the growth of the smartphone market. The new generation smartphones will be witnessing a significant growth in the upcoming few years.
As of now, Samsung and Apple are the big OEMs which have witnessed a decline in the smartphone shipments. Despite the slow growth, the Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo, Oppo are still on the top, generating most of the sales. The above informaton is compiled from the current available information by IDC.
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