Perky smartphone figures can't stop droop of worldwide mobe sales
Total sales shrink 1.7% in 2012
Worldwide mobile phone sales fell 1.7 per cent in 2012, a shrinkage of 30 million units from 2011. Increasing smartphone sales were not enough to compensate for the fall in feature phone sales, according to a Gartner report. Total global sales to end users for 2012 were down 30 million units to 1.75 billion from 1.78 billion in 2011.
“Tough economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences and intense market competition weakened the worldwide mobile phone market this year," said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta in a statement. Gupta added that global mobile phone sales last experienced a drop in 2009 - for similar reasons.
But the analyst firm predicts a rise for 2013, with overall mobile phone sales to end users estimated to reach 1.9 billion units this year, an increase of 8 per cent. One billion of those handsets, 52.6 per cent, will be smartphones, Gartner.
Smartphone sales made up 38.9 per cent of global sales in 2012, a total of 679 million handsets.
Samsung was the most popular brand of phone in 2012: one in five (22 per cent) of all handsets sold last year was a Samsung device. Apple and Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE all grew their share of the global market. Nokia - still the second biggest handset-maker - saw its share of global sales fall to 19.1 per cent from 23.4 per cent in 2011. HTC, LG and Blackberry all saw a drop in market share.
Between them, Apple and Samsung held 32 per cent of the global phone market in the fourth quarter last year, and 52 per cent of the global smartphone market. ®
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COMMENTS
As with desktops
so with mobiles. Everyone who wants one has one. Simples. Now we're entering the mature market phase, where you need to persuade people they should upgrade, or target people seeking replacements.
The past 15 years have seen a frenetic amount of R&D and innovation, but that's plateaued.
Remember all those out of work car marketing executives ? I hope you kept their number.
World population is 7.066 Billion
At the rate of 1.75 billion/yr, we need 4 years to provide each human a phone. This includes every infant and every person in North Korea. Sure, some folks get a new phone every year, and some have more than one phone.
If half to population has phones and the average phone life is 2 years, that accounts for the entire market. Why do we expect any growth?
Buyers are getting full?
“Tough economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences and intense market competition weakened the worldwide mobile phone market this year,"
I don't understand how 'intense market competition' could weaken sales.
Eventually, perhaps soon, everybody who wants a feature/smart phone will have one and then the market will be limited to upgrades and replacements - until the 'next big must have thing' comes along.
It would be interesting to see figures for sales of second hand mobile phones, from eBay etc. to gauge the total number of people buying phones.
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