Market research firm IDC is forecasting a single-digit growth for worldwide smartphone market this year, something which would happen for the firm time. The firm is predicting a growth of 9.8% in 2015 to a total of 1.43 billion units. As for the reason, IDC mentions slowdown in shipments in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Latin America, and Western Europe. It also notes that the economic slowdown in China - the largest smartphone market by shipments - has affected the overall market growth. Image credit: Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images "With the smartphone market finally slowing to single-digit growth, maintaining momentum will depend on several factors," said Ryan Reith , Program Director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "The main driver has been and will continue to be the success of low-cost smartphones in emerging markets." "This, in turn, will depend on capturing value-oriented first-time smartphone buyers as well as replacement buyers. We believe that, in a number of high-growth markets, replacement cycles will be less than the typical two-year rate, mainly because the components that comprise a sub-$100 smartphone simply do not have the ability to survive two years. Offering products that appeal to both types of buyers at a suitable price point will be crucial to maintaining growth and vendor success." As for areas of growth, IDC says the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region will surpass "hot markets" like India and Indonesia this year with an year-on-year shipment growth of 50%. The research firm is predicting the worldwide smartphone market growth to come down to just 4.7% by the year 2019. Here's the detailed forecast data IDC shared for the 2015-2019...
Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/idc_forecasts_singledigit_growth_for_worldwide_smartphone_market_this_year-news-15334.php
