What They Say
GfK put out a press release on the global smartphone market which it valued at $365.5 billion, up 13.4% on 2020 and with further recovery in 2022. Most of the growth was in the first half of the year (+28.7%) and with just 1.8% in the second half. The firm forecast renewed revenue growth in the mid-single-digit range, mainly driven by the expansion of the 5G network.
ASPs rose from $318 to $368 as buyers traded up. By December 2021, this had risen to $392. 5G devices are particularly strong with ASPs at $706 compared to $180 without 5G. However, only 25% of consumers surveyed in Q3 saw 5G as an essential feature. The size of the internal memory (51%), the battery capacity (47%) and the general performance characteristics of the smartphone, such as RAM memory (46%) and processor (38%), were deemed more important.
GfK also sees an increase in the wearables market to $13.8 billion, up 36%. Devices with a blood oxygen measurement function, for example, doubled their revenue share in the global market from 33% in 2020 to 67% in 2021, while devices with an integral sleep monitoring function increased their revenue share from 67% to 93%.
What We Think
Initially, I was disappointed that display quality was not a big factor in user choice, but the reality is that most smartphones that are not just sold on price have very good displays. (BR)
