Gfk Research: Smartphone Market Trends - 2016 and Beyond

Gfk Trends and Forecasting has identified four major technology and market trends in the smartphone arena.  First, bigger screens: Globally, sales of smartphones with larger screens (5”+) grew +180% in 2014, and have continued to drive growth in the first quarter of 2015. 

Share of such devices grew from 32% – or one third – of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2014, to 47% – almost half – in the first quarter of 2015. So it is no surprise that supersize screens are expected to be the largest  sales segment worldwide in 2015, surpassing the 4 to 4.5” segment for the first time. Second, the rise of 4G: 4G-enabled devices surpassed 50% share of the global smartphone market for the first time in the first quarter of 2015, buoyed by continued price erosion of 4G smartphones. Our forecasts point to 4G device share increasing further in 2015, reaching 59% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Third, cheaper handsets: In the first quarter of 2015, low-end smartphones – those priced below $250 – saw their share increase to 56%, up from 52% in Q4 2014, at the expense of high-end models ($500+), while the market share of mid-range devices ($250-$500) remained stable. And forth, the fast growth of emerging markets: The rapid growth of the smartphone market has been shown to slow at country level when saturation point is approaching. For this reason, Spain and France are expected to see a slowdown in smartphone unit growth in 2015 compared to 2014.Which trends are you observing which will have the greatest impact on your smartphone use and productivity> Share your comments with the Smartphone and Tablet Zone. Source: GfK Trends and Forecasting has identified four major trends in smartphone technologies and markets.