According to the International Data Corporation latest research, smartphones shipments overtaken feature phones worldwide in 2013. The research firm believes that the vendors will ship 918.6 million smartphones this year, or 50.1% of the total mobile phone shipments worldwide although by the end of 2017, IDC forecasts 1.5 billion smartphones will be shipped worldwide.
Melissa Chau, Senior Research Manager, IDC Asia/Pacific said:
“While we don’t expect China’s smartphone growth to maintain the pace of a runaway train as it has over the last two years, there continue to be big drivers to keep the market growing as it leads the way to ever-lower smartphone prices and the country’s transition to 4G networks is only just beginning.”
China will remain on the top with having the largest market for smartphones, mainly for low-cost devices based on the Android operating system while India’s year-over-year smartphone shipment growth will result in the highest among the top countries by a wide margin, thanks to country’s wireless subscriber base.
