Smartphone Market Continues Growth due to Lower Prices for Phablets and 4G Devices

The Demand for smartphones increased by 7 percent, compared to the same period last year, that resulted in a total of 310m units sold.  This shows continued growth in the market, here’s a breakdown of the movers and shakers to see what going to happen over the rest of 2015.

Super size Smart phones (those with a 5 inch+ screen), were up in Q1 of 2015 according to a new report from GfK. Sales of these devices reached 166m units which were equivalent to 47 percent of the global Smartphone market over that period. This is up from 32 percent for the same time last year. Much of this growth was driven by cheaper larger screen models coming into the market and in America where there is high demand for larger screen phones phablets dominated with 70% of the market compared to just 59 percent for the first quarter of 2014. One of the fastest growing markets is for this type of phone is Asia where their share in the market jumped from 32% in Q1 of 2014 to 57% in Q1 of 2015. Gfk predicts that this growth will continue throughout the year and forecasts a 30% increase in year on year sales by the end of 2015. For some great deals on phablets and large screen phones check out Chinavasion.

Bigger is Better

4G shares increase over the first quarter of 2015 to surpass 50% of sales for the first time ever. Once again china is seeing huge growth here and that has been buoyed by continued erosion in the price of 4G handsets that makes 4G so much more affordable. As 4G networks increase in India and Indonesia Gfk forecasts 4G unit share for Smartphone’s will expand to 7% and 10% by the year’s end. 4G phones are now becoming commonplace and are no longer just seen on main brand flagship phones. If you are looking for competitively priced 4G Smartphones then Chinavasion has some good examples.

The Need For Speed

Low end smart phones, typically those priced under $250, have increased in market share to 56 percent which is up slightly from the end of 2014. Its predicted that low-end Smartphone’s will continue to erode away high brand market shares though out the year as they become more competitive especially in emerging markets such as Asia, Africa and South America.

The forecast for 2015 looks is for the Smartphone market to continue its rise although at a slower pace than in previous years in part due to saturation in some develop markets and partly due to the slow penetration of emerging markets that have yet to develop.

Read more at GfK