5G will drive growth in smartphone market, claims report – Times of India

NEW DELHI: According to the latest report by IDC, the smartphone shipments will continue to witness growth in emerging markets. The report suggests that the shipments of smartphones are expected to grow 7.4% in 2021, reaching 1.37 billion units, followed by 3.4% growth in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The 7.4% growth can be attributed to a healthy 13.8% growth from iOS devices combined with 6.2% growth from Android. The data also highlights that 5G smartphones are the main driving factor of the growth.
The report also revealed that despite the image of Covid-19, the 2021 smartphone shipments managed to display minimal growth compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic) volumes. The report further adds that larger markets like China, the United States, and Western Europe – will still be down from 2019, but growing markets such as India, Japan, the Middle East, and Africa are fueling the recovery.
“2020 was a bust due to the pandemic but all of the top brands continued forward with their production plans with the main difference that the timeline was pushed out. Therefore, we are at a point where inventory levels are much healthier than PCs and some other adjacent markets and we are seeing the resilience of consumer demand in recent quarterly results”, said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

As mentioned above, 5G shipments will act as a primary driver of 2021 growth as both vendors and channels focus on 5G devices that carry a significantly higher average selling price (ASP) than older 4G devices. The ASP of a 5G smartphone will reach $634 in 2021, which is flat from $632 in 2020. According to IDC, China will continue to lead the 5G smartphone market with 47.1% market share, followed by the USA at 16%, India at 6.1%, and Japan at 4.1%.
On the other hand, the 4G smartphones will see a massive price decline as the ASP drops to $206, representing a nearly 30% decline from last year ($277). As a result, the total 5G shipment volume will grow to 570 million units, up 123.4% from last year.