China, India, US top 3 countries, says report.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: India will surpass the United States as the second-largest global smartphone market by 2016, helped by device makers offering affordable handsets, research firm eMarketer says in a new report.
According to eMarketer, the advent of affordable smartphones in emerging markets will help drive the worldwide smartphone user count past the 2 billion mark in 2016. In that same year, India is projected to exceed 200 million smartphone users, which will lead it past the U.S. and place it behind China in terms of smartphone users.
According to the report, China will continue to lead the rankings in 2016 with 624.7 million smartphones followed by India (204.1 million), the U.S. (198.5 million), Russia (65.1 million) and Japan (61.2 million).
2015 will commemorate the first time more than a quarter of the global population will use smartphones, and by 2018 that figure will rise to one third, or more than 2.56 billion people.
“Inexpensive smartphones are opening new opportunities for marketing and commerce in emerging markets where many consumers previously had no access to the Internet,” eMarketer added.
“However in mature and established markets, smartphones are quickly shifting the paradigm for consumer media usage and impressing the need for marketers to become more mobile- centric,” the report said.