In the fourth quarter of 2021, the global smartphone market will see a decline. But at the expense of significant growth in the first six months of the year as a whole will be recorded growth.

IDC experts estimate that the global smartphone market will grow by 5.3% in 2021. The growth will occur even against the background of chip shortage. In numerical terms, the experts predict that 1.35 billion smartphones will be sold in the world in 2021.

However, problems with components make adjustments, IDC was forced to lower its forecasts for the growth of the global smartphone market from 7.4% to 5.3% this year, and from 3.4% to 3% – in the next 2022. For 2023 and beyond, IDC predicts a slow but steady growth of 3.5% per year. The average price of the device will decrease: if in 2019 a 5G smartphone was sold for an average of $812, in 2021 it can already be bought for $643, then in 2025 the cost of such a device will fall to $416. Also 4G-devices will become much cheaper: from $338 in 2019 to $ 109 in 2025.

IDC experts stress that the supply chain and logistics problems affected all the major players in the market. Moreover, shortages were more concentrated on components for 4G devices than on components for 5G smartphones. This situation is expected to accelerate the transition to smartphones that support 5G communication standard.

It is noted that by the New Year holidays demand for smartphones will decrease in all regions of the world. But at the expense of a noticeable increase in the first half of the year as a whole will be recorded growth. For example, in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan and China) in the fourth quarter of 2021 is projected to reduce sales by 9.1%. In China, the market volume is expected to decline by 8.4% for the same period.

As for 5G-smartphones, their sales in the world by the end of 2021 will grow by 117% compared to 2020. Smartphones working with 4G communication standard will face a decline in demand by 22.5%.

In 2021, the largest market for 5G smartphones was China, which accounted for 46.9% of global sales. In second place was the U.S. with 16.1%. The third was the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China and Japan – it accounted for 12.8% of global sales.

Curiously, the high price of smartphones Apple iPhone led to the fact that despite the fact that the company’s share of the world market in units is about 17.1%, the share of the company from Cupertino in terms of money is equal to about 43%.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)