Global smartphone sales grew 5 per cent to hit US$522 billion last year, with Asia-Pacific accounting for nearly half of those. According to a recent Consumer Life Study by GfK, smartphones, feature phones and wearables accounted for a 44 per cent share of the global $1.2 trillion technical consumer goods (TCG) market. But it warned smartphone sales are expected to grow by just 1 per cent this year.
Apac the key driver
More than 732 million smartphone devices were sold last year. Despite a slight decline in demand, overall consumer spend increased by 5 per cent. China accounted for 60 per cent of the Apac region’s market value and 54 per cent market volume, making it the largest contributing country to the global smartphone market.
“The Chinese market consumes the majority of the global smartphone production, as well as being the home of local brands that are becoming increasingly global,” observed Alexander Dehmel, GfK regional senior market insights manager. “Some 40 per cent of the Chinese brands’ smartphone production in 2018 was purchased outside of China, up from 31 per cent in 2016.”
In second position, India bucked the global demand downtrend, reporting growth in both sales volume and value in 2018, by 19 and 21 per cent respectively. More than 161 million smartphones worth more than $28.5 billion were sold last year.
“In Asia’s emerging markets such as India, a country where feature-phone sales still exceeds half of the total handset market, smartphone market rapid growth is fuelled by the high adoption rate of first-time smartphone users, in addition to the fast replacement cycle and upgrading of existing smartphone users,” said Dehmel.
Premium models and Chinese brands fuel growth.
Globally, 12 per cent (up from 9 per cent in 2017) of smartphones sold were priced at more than $800 last year. The $150-400 segment continues to be an important competitive battleground accounting for 46 per cent of smartphones sold globally (up 2 per cent from 44 per cent in 2017).
Within Asia, developed markets drove the take up of high-end smartphones. Last year, every other device (53 per cent) sold in these countries cost more than $800. On the other hand, the most affordable phones priced below $150 accounted for half the total market.
