China, India will account for around half a billion smartphone sales.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A new report put out by market research firm Mediacells indicates that India will surpass the US in smartphone usage by the end of 2014.
The report says that India and China alone will purchase roughly half a billion smartphones over the course of the year, accounting for half of the total smartphone purchases across 47 nations in 2014. The move would see China take the top spot in both smartphone sales and usage, followed by India at #2 and the US at #3.
China will see sales of 283 million smartphones, India will have 225 million, the US will have 89 million, Brazil will have 47 million, Indonesia will have 46 million, Russia will have 31 million, Japan will have 30 million, Mexico will have 23 million, Germany will have 22 million, and France will have 18.7 million. The UK just missed the top 10, projected to have just 17.7 million smartphone sales in the coming year.
In terms of new smartphone users, India will see a rise of 207 million, while China will add 216 million new smartphone users. Brazil will have 38.2 million, Indonesia will have 39.8 million, Russia will have 21.4 million, Japan will have 22.9 million, Mexico will have 16.3 million, Germany will have 12.2 million, France will have 11.21 million, and the UK will see 8.24 million new smartphone users.
On the other hand, several countries will see decidedly low numbers of smartphone adopters during this year. Particularly, the Netherlands will only see 1.4 million new smartphone users, bringing their number of total users to just over 10 million, and meaning that only 29% of new sales will be smartphones. Other low-ranking countries include Finland with 43%, Norway with 44%, South Africa with 44.6%, Australia with 44.7%, the UAE with 45%, Saudi Arabia with 45.3%, and the UK with 49%.
India’s smartphone population is expected to double this year, going from 156 million to 364 million. About 56%-60% of smartphone sales around the world will go to users who already have a smartphone. South America as a whole is expected to see a large growth this year due to improve wireless infrastructure and, perhaps, the FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil.
The smartphone numbers come just as Hewlett-Packard announced that it will be launching its new line of state-of-the-art voice tablets in India next month – the Slate6 and Slate7. The devices are a fusion of tablet and smartphone hardware, and represent a fresh attempt by HP to enter the mobile device marketplace.
The two tablet iterations will run Google’s Android operating system and have 16 GB of internal storage, with the ability to take in more via microSD cards. What’s unusual about these voice tablets is that they’re getting release in India before the US, as a stateside release has not yet even been announced by the company. HP is likely launching the device in India because of the country’s far greater mobile growth prospects.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com