In 2017, the smartphone market experienced weak growth in volume, but strong growth in value. Explanations: fewer smartphones sold in Europe and the United States, but in these markets, buyers are willing to pay more for their devices.
A weak growth market …
The research firm GfK has just released its report on the state of the smartphone market in 2017. According to its figures, last year it sold nearly 1.46 billion smartphones in the world, an increase of 3% compared to 2016. A statistic that shows the saturation of the smartphone market: in 2015, this growth was 6.5% and 8% in 2016.
GfK explains that smartphone sales were down in two key markets, the United States and Western Europe (-4%). This decline in sales was, however, offset by significant increases in emerging countries, whether in Central Europe or Eastern Europe (+ 9%), Latin America (+ 9%) or Asia (+ 8%). Countries in which, contrary to Western Europe, the population is not yet fully equipped with smartphones.
… But driven by a rising average selling price
If this decline in growth indicates a weaker demand, it hides an important statistic: if we look at the growth of the market in value, it increases by 9% compared to last year. In 2017, the smartphone market accounted for $ 478.7 billion. The strongest gains were recorded in Western Europe (+ 17% in value), driven by France (+ 19%) and Great Britain (+ 24%).
More interesting: in 2017, the average price of a smartphone was $ 363, up 10% from 2016. An increase is explained by the fact that smartphone users in Europe and the United States are buying fewer smartphones, but no longer hesitate to put more money in their device. A finding that is not surprising at the time when Samsung ( with its Galaxy Note 8 ) or Apple ( with its iPhone X ) no longer hesitate to sell devices over $1,000.
Fewer sales, but more expensive, encouraged consumers to keep their device longer?
Still, this rise in the average price will surely have an impact on the behavior of the user: if he puts more money in his smartphone, he will also change less often device. A low renewal rate would put the smallest players in the market in difficulty. In short, the coming years are becoming more and more difficult for smartphone manufacturers.
