Android phones to dominate global market with 85% share in 2018: IDC

Android mobile phones will take around 85 per cent share of the global market in 2018 as volumes are expected to grow at a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.4 per cent, with shipments approaching 1.41 billion in 2022, an IDC report said on Thursday.

Apple is expected to grow by 2.1 per cent in 2018 and iPhones would grow at a five-year CAGR of two per cent, thus, reaching volumes of 238.5 million by 2022, said the market research firm IDC.

According to IDC's "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker 2018", a more interesting trend happening with Android shipments is that the average selling prices (ASPs) are growing at a double-digit pace.

The firm expects Android ASPs to grow 11.4 per cent in 2018 to $262, up from $235 in 2017. The upward trajectory would continue through the forecast, but at a more tempered low single-digit rate from 2019 and beyond.
 

"With two out of three new iPhones expected to be larger than six inches, Apple will not be left behind in the 2018 race for increased screen real estate," said Melissa Chau, Associate Research Director, IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers.
 

"You could say the term 'phablet' is becoming less relevant now that most smartphones will ship with larger screens, and when folding screens start coming into play in the medium term, this screen trend will evolve in new directions," Chau added.

However, the global smartphone market is expected to decline again in 2018 and the market would experience low single-digit growth from 2019 through the end of 2022.
 

IDC expects smartphone shipments to decline 0.7 per cent in 2018 to 1.455 billion units, down from 1.465 billion in 2017.

The market, however, will return to positive growth in the second half of 2018 with volumes up 1.1 per cent compared to the second half of 2017, said the IDC.