Market intelligence firm IDC is predicting that the smartphone market will post better growth rates in 2017 and beyond after experiencing its lowest year-over-year growth rate in 2016 at 2.5 percent.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipments are expected to grow 4.2 percent in 2017 and 4.4 percent in 2018 with a compound annual growth rate of 3.8 percent over the 2016-2021 forecast. Likewise, IDC expects 1.53 billion smartphone units to be shipped in 2017, with the number growing to 1.77 billion in 2021.
In terms of mobile platforms, IDC said that Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS will continue to dominate shipment volume and market share through 2021. By that year, Android’s market share is expected to hit 85.3 percent while iOS is at 14.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the firm expects Windows Phone to post 0 percent market share by 2021 as OEMs have given up producing phones for the said platform.
(Photo Source: news.samsung.com)
