Tag: smartphones

A report from IDC has showed that even as it matures in some countries, others are still taking off.

The IDC has now released its report on the growth of the smartphone market for 2014 and it has shown that while mature marketplaces are forecasted to grow by only 4.9 percent, emerging regions are expected to keep up a tremendous rate of 32.4 percent.

Some of the regions of the world are experiencing faster growth than the average reported by IDC.

According to the report, the Indian smartphone market saw a massive 300 percent growth rate in 2013. As only 10 percent of the over 700 million users of cell phones had smartphones at that time, it was only natural that the growth rate be exceptionally high. By the first quarter of this year, the penetration rate of these mobile devices had already reached a much higher 29 percent.

In emerging countries, the dynamics of the growth of the smartphone market are different than in mature regions.

For instance, many emerging marketplaces do not have a broad scale fixed line infrastructure. Therefore, this means that it provides an ecosystem that is much more favorable for the use of mobile broadband technologies for the delivery of high speed internet connections than is the case in mature markets, where that infrastructure is considerably better established.

The demand within emerging regions is, therefore, driving growth in both smartphone shipments and in mobile broadband subscriptions. Two very large and yet highly different examples of this occurrence are going on in India and in China.

In China, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) reported that at the end of 2012, there was a 74.5 percent growth in mobile internet users to the most recent figure, which is 81 percent. Clearly, this is a notably higher growth rate and the CNNIC is calling the smartphones the primary driving force for internet use in the country.

On the other hand, in India, Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins, indicated in the report called the 2014 Internet Trends that while smartphone use is tremendous, revenues are very large, and the opportunity is considerable, companies are still seeing tiny margins. At the moment, only 4 percent of the budgets of advertisers in the country is being spent on advertising in the smartphone market.

Wearable devices are becoming more common. Most of these devices have very limited uses, with some existing only to keep track of how many steps a person has taken in a short amount of time. More ambitious devices are beginning to enter the market, but whether or not these devices will find any success is suspect. Many people are showing interest in wearable technology, but this does not mean that these people will be using these devices on a daily basis.

Currently, one of the major selling points of wearable devices is that they can simply do what smartphones already do, but better. Smartphones are quite capable of doing anything a pair of augmented reality glasses or a smartwatch can do. These devices have been equipped with features that are considered “new” to the field of wearable technology for years. While some wearable devices may be able to outshine smartphones, they can only manage to do so by having a very specific focus on a particular purpose. Smartphones, however, are not restricted to a singular focus and can do many things very effectively.

Wearable devices may have very limited market appeal. Because they do not actually offer something new, apart from how a person uses a mobile device, they may be a hard sell to consumers. Many people are happy to use their smartphones and tablets in public, and these devices have become something of a fashion accessory for people everywhere. Wearable devices do not have the same appeal currently. Augmented reality glasses, for instance, are not designed with appearance in mind. As such, those interested in such devices may shy away from using them because of how they look, and how these devices will make them look in public.

Wearable technology does have a future, but what that future looks like is difficult to say for certain. In the early days of mobile technology, there was uncertainty regarding how popular mobile phones would be. Wearables may well be the next smartphone, if they can manage to overcome some of the challenges that they will experience in society.