Smartphone sales in India are expected to rise at a healthy 29.5 per cent this year while the same is likely to slow down globally to just 7 per cent, research firm Gartner said today.
Unlike previous years of double-digit growth, global smartphone sales are expected to grow 7 per cent in 2016 over the previous year to 1.5 billion units.
In 2020, smartphone sales are on pace to total 1.9 billion units. The global market had grown 14.4 per cent in 2015.
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"The smartphone market will no longer grow at the levels it has reached over the last seven years. Smartphone sales recorded their highest growth in 2010, reaching 73 per cent," Gartner research director Anshul Gupta said.
Since mature markets are saturated, the focus for many vendors is on India and China, he added.
"India has the highest growth potential. Sales of feature phones totaled 167 million units in 2015, 61 per cent of total mobile phone sales in India," Gupta said.
Gartner estimates that 139 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2016, growing 29.5 per cent year-on-year.
Average selling price (ASPs) of mobile phones in India remain under USD 70 (about Rs 4,650), and smartphones under USD 120 (about Rs 8,000) will continue to contribute around 50 per cent of overall smartphone sales in 2016, it added.
Smartphone market has reached 90 per cent penetration in the mature markets of North America, Western Europe, Japan and Asia/Pacific, slowing future growth, Gartner said adding that users in these regions are not replacing or upgrading their smartphone as often as in previous years.
