Growth in smartphone sales has stopped

[Skiff]

Big surprise in the smartphone market:
In the first quarter of 2016 the growth in sales has stopped. No analyst has expected that. All thought the growth will continue another 2-3 years. Now it seems market saturation will take place much earlier.
I have to admit: That is also a surprise for me. Because I also thought there is still some growth potential in that market.

Here is the data:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/idc-der-smartphone-markt-waechst-nicht-mehr-a-1089708.html

 

[Gregm61]

Everyone always expects good times to go on forever, until it doesn't. Seems to me like most everyone already has one, so I'm not seeing where all this extra growth was expected to happen. Third-world countries, where the cost of my iPhone might be 6 months or even more in wages?

 

[kshapero]

W/O Steve Jobs, what's left in the pipeline for Apple?

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Was this person's account hacked? This seems like marketing spam to me.

 

[sevo]

Everyone always expects good times to go on forever, until it doesn't. Seems to me like most everyone already has one, so I'm not seeing where all this extra growth was expected to happen. Third-world countries, where the cost of my iPhone might be 6 months or even more in wages?

Even third world countries won't absorb much any more. Decent smartphones (that is, something quite up to a iPhone 4 in speed and memory) for third world markets have already dropped to the 50€ level, and used or underpowered ones can be got for half that. At which point operators fees are the bigger handicap than owning a device...

 

[sevo]

Was this person's account hacked? This seems like marketing spam to me.

Marketing what? "Der Spiegel" is the German equivalent of "Time Magazine". So it hardly will be link spam. Of course, it could be one tiny element in a giant conspiracy to damage Apple's share value - but why would any hacker into that waste his time on a used Leica owners club? 😉

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Yeah, I know, just...there's no mention of photography or anything relevant to RFF? My apologies to Skiff if I'm mistaken, it just seems like a peculiar nonsequitur.

 

[mani]

Yeah, I know, just...there's no mention of photography or anything relevant to RFF? My apologies to Skiff if I'm mistaken, it just seems like a peculiar nonsequitur.

Smartphones have been eating the 'traditional' camera market from underneath over the last few years, and the phenomenon has been discussed on RFF many times. The slowdown (or stop) in sales growth is definitely interesting.

PS: I saw posters for the Huawei/Leica phone around Stockholm for the first time this morning. Interesting timing....

 

[Skiff]

Smartphones have been eating the 'traditional' camera market from underneath over the last few years, and the phenomenon has been discussed on RFF many times. The slowdown (or stop) in sales growth is definitely interesting.

Exactly that was one of the main reasons why I have posted it here.
Smartphones have a huge influence on the digital compact camera market. And the compact camera market has always been (already in film times) the biggest part of the camera market (concerning unit volumes).

 

[jarski]

W/O Steve Jobs, what's left in the pipeline for Apple?

Apple Watch 😱

how nice to charge also watch every day...

 

[Out to Lunch]

Perhaps global market saturation may slow down the sale of smart phones -on a beside, the term "third world countries" has not been in use for the past odd 30 years. This said, I don't see how this would impact on the 'traditional' camera market.

 

[jsrockit]

Third-world countries, where the cost of my iPhone might be 6 months or even more in wages?

Sometimes these countries have a better wireless infrastructure than a wired one (and at times better than the US I would imagine). That coupled with the fact that a phone is now a device that can do everything makes it something that more and more people own... especially if tourism is big in that area.

 

[sevo]

Both have more millionaires than the US or all of Western Europe.

Most companies could not survive catering to millionaires, even if all millionaires in the world were their customers. But apart from the millionaires, the added middle class of China and India outnumbers the entire population of the US...

And for what it is worth, smart phones and mobile coverage have brought the Internet to rural Africa, to places where even the middle class could not afford a computer (and where the lack of a well-maintained voice grade land line infrastructure meant that the net never even made it to modem speed).