BuddeComm Intelligence Report - Global Mobile Devices Market - Smartphones, Wearables, Tablets

Synopsis

Archived report. The global smartphone market has slowed from its boom years to a more modest growth. With mature markets becoming increasingly dependent on replacement purchases rather than on first-time buyers, the industry has shifted its attention to emerging countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where much of the population either does not own a mobile phone or has yet to move from feature phone to smartphone.

Although Samsung and Apple remain the leading smartphone suppliers globally, their market share is being eroded by lower-priced phones from China. Moving beyond their vast domestic market, several Chinese brands are expanding internationally and in the past 12 months we have seen the rise of Oppo and vivo.

Wearable technology has also become a thriving industry, with an ever-broadening range of possible uses and devices. With wearable devices still making their mark on the consumer market, the industry is looking at the potential of wearables in the enterprise sector – for example, being hands-free devices, smart glasses are ideal in the blue-collar business.

A major threat to the smartphone and wearables business however arises from the limitations of the mobile broadband infrastructure. The mobile industry can develop all of these new applications and services, but if the infrastructure cannot handle the capacity, there will be little use for them. Developed markets are eating up new spectrum with a voracious appetite. WiFi could be a good customer access alternative; it is already used to access mobile broadband in the home, but mobile operators have problems with the idea of changing their business models to better utilise WiFi.

This Buddecomm Intelligence report provides overall global statistics and 2017 trends for mobile smartphones, wearable devices and handsets.

Latest developments:

• Smartphones account for over 70% of global mobile handset shipments;
• Detachable screens have become a key growth area for the tablet sector;
• China, USA and India are the world’s largest smart phone markets;
• The Used smart phone sector continues to grow and, on average, 13% of smart phones are either traded or sold-on globally;
• The leading handset suppliers all seem to keen to grow market share in the budget devices category given the rise of low-price brands from China and India.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Apple iPhone; Nokia; Motorola Mobility; Google Android; Samsung; Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Microsoft, Oppo, vivo.