More smartphones will ship in 2013 than conventional so-called "feature phones." Should that projection hold true, 2013 will mark the first year in history in which the number of smartphones shipped beats that of their traditional forebears.
The 918.6 million smartphones that will be shipped in 2013, according to numbers deduced by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, represent 50.1 percent of total worldwide phone shipments.
IDC further projects that smartphone shipments will make up nearly two-thirds of the total mobile marketplace, with 1.5 billion units forecast to be shipped annually by the end of 2017.
Reasons for the shift in smartphone usage/shipments, according to IDC, include:
- Prices of smartphones have consistently dropped around the globe
- "The smartphone strata are wider than ever"
- Data-centric fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks are continuously rolled out
Although up until now the growth of smartphone shipments was due largely to those purchased and used in prominent economies such as the U.S., the new shift from feature to smartphones has been predicated largely on the greater use of smartphones in emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India.
"Smartphone demand is burgeoning in these large, populous nations as their respective economies have grown; this has made for a larger middle class that is prepared to buy smartphones," says the IDC, which notes too that China last year supplanted the U.S. as worldwide leader in smartphone shipments.
"While we don't expect China's smartphone growth to maintain the pace of a runaway train as it has over the last two years, there continue to be big drivers to keep the market growing as it leads the way to ever-lower smartphone prices and the country's transition to 4G networks is only just beginning," Melissa Chau, senior research manager for IDC Asia/Pacific, said. "Even as China starts to mature, there remains enormous untapped potential in other emerging markets like India, where we expect less than half of all phones shipped there to be smartphones by 2017, and yet it will weigh in as the world's third largest market."
"The smartphone tide is turning in Brazil ... as wireless service providers and the government have laid the groundwork for a strong smartphone foundation that mobile phone manufacturers can build upon," Bruno Freitas, consumer devices research manager for IDC Brazil, said.
The sea change — both the shift from feature to smartphones and emerging countries gaining prominence on the shipment list — shouldn't surprise many, suggests The Next Web, which reminds us that in 2012 smartphones in the country of China "had accounted for 56.9 percent of phones shipped to retailers in the country."
"The balance, therefore, has already begun to switch and it shouldn't be too long before other emerging markets follow suit," says The Next Web.
Like what you're reading? Follow @profklickberg.
(Edited by Lois Heyman)
