Smartphone sales falling

Analyst house IDC has almost halved its forecast for worldwide sales of smartphones, and predicts that sales in Canada and Japan will actually fall this year.

IDC had predicted 2016 would see smartphone sales rise by 5.7 per cent worldwide, but has now cut it to 3.1 per cent. Sales of Android devices are forecast to rise by 6.2 per cent, while iOS devices will fall by around 2 per cent, with Windows Phone sales likely to be negligible. But there is one bright spot in the market.

"Despite single-digit growth for the overall smartphone market throughout the forecast period, Phablets (devices with 5.5-inch screens and larger) are expected to have double-digit growth until 2019, then slowing to 9.2 per cent growth in 2020," said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's mobile phones team.

"Vendors continue to push larger-screened devices at a variety of price points that feature big bold displays as well as powerful multimedia capabilities in both mature and developed markets. We are witnessing a plethora of vendors shifting their flagship devices toward the Phablet category, as the average selling price for a Phablet will remain significantly higher than a regular smartphone ($383 vs $260 in 2016) through the forecast period." ®