DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/45cl3d/smartphone) has announced the addition of the "Smartphone Markets: Worldwide Trends, Forecasts and Strategies 2012-2017" report to their offering.
Affordability is vital in the effort to encourage non-smartphone owners to adopt smartphones.
The smartphone industry is set to change in 2013. Emerging Asia-Pacific will receive more smartphone shipments than Europe and North America combined in 2012. The smartphone market is changing from an elitist high-end device pool to a segmented mass-market ocean of handsets.
This report provides:
- The following forecasts for smartphones:
- Profiles of the regional smartphone markets
- Detailed analyst views on Android, iOS, Windows Phone and other OSs
- Analysis of the average selling price of smartphones, and ARPU
- Details of the cost of owning an iPhone 5 by operator
- Smartphone retailing and pricing recommendations for operators
- An impact assessment of smartphone app usage on operators and device vendors.
Data coverage
- Total handsets
- Smartphones
- Handset connections by technology
- Shipments by operating system
Key Highlights:
- Worldwide smartphone forecasts and OS shares: Demand-based shipment and active devices forecasts
- The smartphone share of active handset SIMs will grow to just under 50% by 2017 - 1.4 billion new smartphones will enter the market in that year
- Active smartphone SIMs are a better indication of the addressable smartphone user base for service providers than shipments
- 75% of smartphone shipments will be upgrades in 2017
- 62% of smartphones will use 4G networks in developed markets by the end of 2017
- Emerging Asia-Pacific will drive more than a third of smartphone demand by 2017
- Central and Eastern Europe will catch up with Western Europe in terms of penetration rates, during the forecast period
- Smartphone adoption will plateau in North America from 2017 onwards, with penetration flattening out at around 85%
- China will have over 200 million active smartphones by the end of 2012, despite low disposable income, no subsidies and limited 3G coverage
- Microsoft will ship almost as many Windows Phone units in 2017 as Apple will ship iPhones in 2012
- Chinese manufacturers will capture most of the growth from lower-end customers during 2012-2017, taking market share from other players
- Samsung will be the leading Android smartphone vendor throughout the forecast period, but only by a small margin
- Despite significant success, Android brings a level of fragmentation to the market, adding complexity to app development
- Windows Phone will be the fastest-growing OS in terms of shipments in the next 5 years
- Microsoft's Surface device range threatens Windows Phone partnerships
- Worldwide smartphone forecasts and OS shares: Smartphone commoditisation
- The average selling price of a smartphone declined by EUR300 from 2007 to 2011, which is threatening device profitability
- Android is the primary driver of smartphone commoditisation, as a growing number of vendors adopt the OS
- The response from competing OSs has been weak: Nokia's strategy is to push Symbian via low-end devices with content bundles
- Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Lowering smartphone ownership costs: handset subsidies and financing plans
- Subsidies and creative tariff strategies are essential for driving high-end smartphone adoption and mobile data usage
- Variations in subsidies and packages mean the minimum cost of an iPhone 5 16GB varies between EUR700 (3HK) and EUR1840 (T-Mobile USA)
- Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Monetising smartphone users: mobile data pricing and 4G
- The greatest monetisation potential for operators in their smartphone user base is mobile data access
- Smartphones are great drivers of data consumption but the price per gigabyte is set to decrease threatening smartphone user monetisation
- If operators are to maximise smartphone monetisation, 4G adoption is paramount, but the value proposition is not always clear to consumers
- Operator opportunities and challenges in the smartphone market: Managing device and OS ecosystems
- Unlike other handsets, vendors and operators must provide smartphones with OS upgrades, which may have significant cost implications
- If a third OS gains enough traction to compete with Android and iOS, it can create opportunities for operators to support transitioning subscribers
- However, multi-device ecosystems will limit the number of transitions from one OS to another in the high-end customer segment
Companies Mentioned
- Acer
- Alcatel Mobile Phones
- AT&T
- Apple
- Fujitsu
- HTC
- Huawei
- Hutchison
- Lenovo
- LG
- M1
- Micromax
- Microsoft
- Netflix
- Nokia
- Panasonic
- Pantech
- Research In Motion (RIM)
- Samsung
- Skype
- Sony
- Sony Mobile Communications
- Spotify
- Sprint
- Telefónica
- Telstra
- Verizon Wireless
- Vodafone
- ZTE
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/45cl3d/smartphone