Tag: international data corporation

Smartphone sales are slowing down as predicted this year

Emerging markets are continuing to exhibit positive growth, but as a whole it is declining in developed regions.

According to the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker from the International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphone sales are declining as expected. Many forecasts pointed to an overall slowdown of mobile phone sales in 2016. This is linked to a reduction in sales in developed regions.

Despite the positive growth that continues in emerging markets, it isn’t enough to keep the entire marketplace’s pace.

The report showed that much of the smartphone sales currently occurring in developed regions is in replacements. The rate of new users has decreased substantially as penetration within these populations is now very high. The report predicted a 1.6 year over year growth of smartphone shipments in 2016. This, upon the shipment of 1.46 billion units by the end of the year. That may appear to be a healthy number, but it is a fraction of what it was last year. In 2015, the year over year growth rate for smartphone shipments was 10.4 percent.

As a whole, developed markets are expected to see a negative growth rate in smartphone sales.

Smartphone Sales Slowing Down this YearThe report took the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Japan into its definition of developed markets. Within that region, the IDC predicts a -0.2 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Emerging markets were made up of Central and Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific Region (except for Japan), Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. They are expected to see a 5.4 percent CAGR throughout the forecast period of 2015 to 2020.

Senior IDC research analyst at the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, Jitesh Ubrani, said “Growth in the smartphone market is quickly becoming reliant on replacing existing handsets rather than seeking new users.” Ubrani also stated that from the point of view of the tech side, innovation is “in a lull.” Consumers have greatly reduced their inclination to purchase the latest device with all the newest bells and whistles. Instead, they are satisfied with mobile devices that are “good enough.”

Telcos have been working hard to breathe life back into their smartphone sales. Programs such as trade-ins and buy-backs are geared toward shortening lifecycles and increasing the inclination to purchase early replacements.

Wearable technology device shipments will break 200 million in 2019

A new forecast from IDC has predicted that smartwatches, fitness trackers and other wearables are rising fast.

This year, the International Data Corporation (IDC) reported a massive surge in the wearable technology market, which it said saw growth of 300 percent due to the sale of products such as the Fitbit Surge, Apple Watch and Pebble Time.

The IDC has released a report saying that by the end of 2016, worldwide shipments will hit 111.1 million.

That will mean that wearable technology will have seen an increase of 44 percent over the figure from 2015. That said, by the year 2019, shipments of wearables will have broken through the 214.6 million mark. According to the wearables team research manager at IDC, Ramon Llamas, “In a short amount of time, smartwatches have evolved from being extensions of the smartphone to wearable computers capable of communications, notifications, applications, and numerous other functionalities.”

It was also pointed out that wearable technology devices are experiencing a rapid evolution.

Wearable Technology - Wearables on the riseLlamas went on to point out that just because they’re starting to sell and they will be seeing rapid growth over coming years, it doesn’t mean that the smartwatches we currently know will be the ones that actually take off over the next few years. He explained that “The smartwatch we have today will look nothing like the smartwatch we will see in the future.”

He also underscored the forecast that the details of these devices will be quite different from what we currently see. The health sensors, cellular connectivity and even the wearables app market – which is already rapidly on the grow – will be ready to provide serious game changing evolutions in this market. Llamas feels that it will be in those areas that the gadgets will start to define themselves as having value and will become appealing to consumers.

While many of its predictions aligned well with other reports that have been issued by various prediction firms, the IDC report was somewhat different in that it has said that watchOS and Android Wear will be grabbing the top two spots (respectively). That said, it also stated that Tizen from Samsung will carve out an important segment of the market over the next four years, as well, to the point that it might swipe away some of the share that would otherwise have belonged to Android Wear.