With the smartphones becoming more affordable, the number of customers purchasing new device is rising exponentially. While we were expecting it to saturate, reports estimate it would grow even more in this year.
According to estimates from analyst firm Gartner, 2.5 billion mobile devices would be shipped in the year 2014, which indicates a 7.6 percent rise compared to 2013. Interestingly, the driving force for the sales would be developing countries like India and Indonesia and not the US or European markets. Low-cost Android smartphones would see a heavy demand as many people are expected to migrate from feature phones.
Apparently, the high-growth countries in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to report shipments of 529 million mobile devices which means a 20 percent growth compared to 2013. However Gartner warns that manufacturers can’t rely solely on Android’s market dominance to turn a profit, but would need to work on features and experiences which differentiate their products from the competition and attract customers. As such the local manufacturers stand a better chance due to their disruptive business ideas and better understanding of their customers.
Speaking about the estimates, Ranjit Atwal, research director of global forecasting at Gartner, said, “There are 200 million middle-class customers in India alone. Users want to look beyond Apple and Samsung. Over the next two years they will be open to trying something different.”
