Global smartphone sales increased 5 percent to $522 billion in 2018, according to a report from GfK.
Smartphone companies generated $254 billion (+5 percent) revenue, which is nearly half of global sales, from Asia Pacific region.
Global smartphone volume dropped 3 percent to hit 1.44 billion units. Smartphones represent the majority of the total spend of the global TCG market last year. This is expected to grow plus one percent in 2019.
Smartphones customers in Asia Pacific region purchased over 732 million units of the device last year. In line with the global sales trend, Asia Pacific’s smartphone market clocked slight decline in demand.
Within Asia Pacific, China accounted for 60 percent of the region’s total market value and 54 percent market volume—making it the largest contributing country to the global smartphone market.
Alexander Dehmel, regional senior market insights manager at GfK, said: “Some 40 percent of the Chinese brands’ smartphone production in 2018 was purchased outside of China, that is up from 31 percent in 2016.”
India smartphone market has reported 19 percent growth in volume and 21 percent increase in sales value in 2018. Indian phone buyers purchased more than 161 million smartphones worth over $28.5 billion last year.
Globally, around 12 percent (up from 9 percent in 2017) of smartphones sold were priced at more than $800 in 2018. The $150-400 segment continues to be an important competitive battleground accounting for 46 percent of smartphones sold globally in 2018 (up two percent from 44 percent in 2017).
