Emerging markets more crucial to smartphones growth

The primary smartphone growth markets are now developing market, according to an IDC report that shows worldwide smartphone shipment growth is slowing to a single digit overall. India is the country with the most growth potential right now and the Middle East and Africa are the regions with the highest growth, registering an estimated 50 percent increase year-over-year in 2015. Among India, China, North America and Europe, India is the only market that will see an increase in its share of smartphone shipments, as China has finally reached a saturation point. Similarly, India is expected to account for 13.49 percent of smartphone shipments by 2019, an increase from 7.6 percent in 2015. China’s market, meanwhile, is expected to decline to 23.08 from 29.6 percent over the same time period, although it will remain the largest market by volume.

Most smartphone sales in China will now come from upgrades, a good news for Apple as the company’s sales in the country remain strong thanks to its premium brand image. Most smartphone shipments worldwide, however, will continue to be Android phones, which are expected to account for 81.2 percent of smartphone shipments in 2015 and inch up to 82.6 percent by 2019. Over the same time period, iOS will decline slightly from 15.8 to 14.1 percent as Windows phones’ market share barely changes from 2.2 to 2.3 percent.

Though iPhones remain popular in China, the smartphone market grew there as it is growing in other emerging markets via phones running Google’s open source Android OS. Being free and open source offer these smartphones a unique advantage in developing markets. It is not just that it can be put into affordable handsets, though that certainly helps increase market share, but also because the open-source software can better be tailored to a specific market. Google has found out through its Android One program in India that the market actually prefers local companies such as Lava and Micromax. After smartphone makers complained that the Android One program did not allow enough variability in hardware for product differentiation, Google overhauled theprogram. Yet there does not seem to be a compelling reason for manufacturers to shift away from offering customized versions of Android running different app stores. Emerging markets, it seems, may still respond better to smartphones customized for the needs of a specific market. That is a flexibility that so far only Android has been able to provide.