A record $96bn-worth of smartphones were sold globally in the first quarter as consumer demand for large-screen devices picked up, but weaker demand from China and near-saturation in Europe weighed on the sector’s growth.
The number of smartphones sold in the January to March period increased by 7pc to 310m units, according to GfK’s quarterly tracker, but this was considerably slower than the 34pc growth in the same period last year.
Western Europe saw its first year-on-year decline in sales value in the first quarter, falling 1pc to $12.4bn, weighed down by France and Spain in particular as these countries inch closer to smartphone saturation, which means that almost every consumer already has a smartphone.
Smartphones sales dropped by 14pc and 5pc respectively in China and Developed Asia, which includes Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
“The weakness in China was caused by a significant slowdown in 3G demand, which was not offset by 4G growth,” said Kevin Walsh, director of trends and forecasting at GfK. “In Developed Asia, the year-on-year decline was caused by tough comparisons with the first quarter of 2014, when demand was pulled forward in Japan due to an upcoming VAT increase in April.”
This follows a report earlier this week from the market intelligence firm IDC, which found that China’s smartphone market contracted by 4pc in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2014, marking its first year-on-year decline in six years.
China’s smartphone market has been the biggest in the world since overtaking the US in 2011.
The January to March quarter of this year was the first time that Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the US, buoyed by the release of its first smartphone with a screen larger than five inches.
Large-screen devices now account for 47pc of the global smartphone market, up from 32pc this time last year, according to GfK. That rises to 57pc in China and 71pc in North America.
In 2015, global smartphone sales are projected to increase by 10pc, driven by emerging Asian markets such as India and Indonesia, a slowdown on the 23pc growth experienced in 2014.
Another GfK report, released last year, predicted that India would overtake China in 2015 to become the largest smartphone market in terms of growth by value.
By Lauren Davidson / The Telegraph.com
