Despite witnessing decline in the earlier quarters, the worldwide smartphone market is ready to “return to a full recovery” in the following couple of years, as per the most recent report by IDC.
“Although we expect year-over-year growth of 9% in 2021, that is only due to the large drop in 2020. The real recovery won’t happen until 2022 when smartphone volumes return to pre-COVID levels,” mentioned Nabila Popal, analysis director with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “Other elements beyond 5G will play a role in the market recovery, most notably the continued opportunity in developing markets. There continues to be a strong shift towards low- to mid-end 4G devices in developing regions, which make up over 80% of smartphone volumes in these regions.”
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the the smartphone market will obtain a compound annual growth charge (CAGR) of 1.7% over the 5 12 months forecast and this may largely be pushed by the idea that smartphones will proceed to be the “computing platform of choice for most of the world.”
“5G remains a priority for all smartphone OEMs despite the challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of consumer demand,” mentioned Ryan Reith, program vice chairman with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “While many of the top vendors have reduced their 2020 production plans to align with the market decline, we’ve seen most of the cuts focused on their 4G portfolios. Most channels in developed markets have set the expectation that the portfolios they carry will be dominated by 5G units by the end of 2020 leaving less shelf space for 4G. However, we still believe that consumer demand for 5G is very low and when that is combined with the economic headwinds facing the market, the pressure to drive down hardware and service fees associated with 5G will become increasingly important.”
The report additionally provides that the availability-pushed 5G push mixed with a not so good financial local weather is predicted to speed up the drop in 5G common promoting costs (ASPs) in 2020 and past.
