• Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Contact
  • Log in
CCS Insight
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who We Serve
    • What We Do
    • Jobs
  • Research Areas
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Press
    • Company News
    • Media Coverage
    • Media Resources
  • Try for free
  • Menu Menu
  • About
  • Research Areas
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Press
  • Contact Us

LTE-Capable Mobile Phones to Account for Half of All Shipments in 2016 as China Remains Powerhouse of Growth

CCS Insight forecasts 2.2 billion mobile phones to be sold in 2020

China is world’s biggest market, accounting for over 420 million shipments in 2016,
or 21 percent of the global market
 

By 2020, a staggering 7 billion mobile phones will be in use,
with over three-quarters being smartphones
 

London, 5 April 2016: CCS Insight’s latest mobile phones forecast indicates continued but more stable growth over the next five years. The research company expects 2.04 billion mobile phones to be sold in 2016, with smartphones providing the growth.

Over the next five years CCS Insight expects smartphone sales to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2016 to 2 billion units in 2020. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 7.2 percent. Furthermore, as smartphones continue to displace non-smartphones, over 2 billion new smartphone owners will emerge over the next five years, taking the number of smartphone users from 3.1 billion in 2015 to 5.4 billion in 2020.

Key markets that will deliver smartphone growth include India and the other emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, where CCS Insight expects almost 220 million smartphones to be sold in 2016. A further 85 million smartphones will be sold in Africa.

Jasdeep Badyal, analyst for smart devices at CCS Insight, commented, “Despite a popular misconception that mobile phone growth has ceased, there remains a huge market opportunity. Adoption of new technology is also being boosted as users upgrade to increasingly affordable LTE-capable smartphones.”

The new research confirms that LTE device shipments doubled between 2014 and 2015, rising from 443 million units to 900 million units. China accounted for much of the growth, seeing LTE-capable device shipments more than triple from 93 million to 317 million.

Badyal continues, “LTE momentum shows no signs of abating. In 2016 we expect LTE-capable devices to account for 50 percent of all smartphone shipments; and we expect that to rise to 72 percent of the market by 2020”.

The forecast also highlights the niche role now played by alternative smartphone operating systems. Software platforms such as BlackBerry OS, Tizen and Windows 10 Mobile will account for just 2 percent of the market by the end of 2016 as the dominance of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS rolls on.

Feature phones make up a shrinking proportion of the market. Sale volumes will slide from 550 million units in 2016 to 240 million units by 2020. However, this opportunity remains interesting enough for a number of phone makers to continue to deliver products, albeit with ever-declining profit margins.

Notes to editors

The data in this release is taken from CCS Insight’s recently published Market Forecast: Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2016-2020.

The forecast is part of a broader suite of products available from CCS Insight, including mobile operator research, wearable devices, semiconductors, multiplay services and enterprise mobility.

Click on the infographic above for a larger version or click here for a PDF version.

About CCS Insight

CCS Insight is a global analyst company focussing on mobile communications and the Internet. It provides comprehensive services that are tailored to meet the needs of individual clients, helping them make sense of the connected world. Follow @CCSInsight on Twitter or learn more at www.ccsinsight.com.

For further information contact:
Sarah Wilson
Harvard PR
Tel: +44 20 7861 3933
E-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Share this Insight
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail

You might also like

Shaun Collins Leads GLOMO Awards Body for Fourth Year

18 January 2021/0 Comments/by CCS Insight
Read more
https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Shaun_Collins_sq_s.jpg 540 540 CCS Insight https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CCS_Insight_logo_101.png CCS Insight2021-01-18 15:41:082021-01-19 14:38:52Shaun Collins Leads GLOMO Awards Body for Fourth Year

CCS Insight’s Ben Wood Named in Top Five Tech Analysts of 2020

14 January 2021/0 Comments/by Romina Portela
Read more
https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Ben_Wood_sq_s_white.jpg 540 540 Romina Portela https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CCS_Insight_logo_101.png Romina Portela2021-01-14 09:14:572021-01-14 09:24:50CCS Insight’s Ben Wood Named in Top Five Tech Analysts of 2020

CCS Insight’s Nick McQuire Wins Global Analyst Award

22 December 2020/0 Comments/by CCS Insight
Read more
https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/NM_t.png 81 81 CCS Insight https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CCS_Insight_logo_101.png CCS Insight2020-12-22 09:35:542020-12-22 09:38:06CCS Insight’s Nick McQuire Wins Global Analyst Award

Extended Reality Sails Toward Better Times

8 December 2020/0 Comments/by Marina Koytcheva
Read more
https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/VRAR_forecast_Dec2020_600.png 330 600 Marina Koytcheva https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CCS_Insight_logo_101.png Marina Koytcheva2020-12-08 09:49:222020-12-08 09:50:09Extended Reality Sails Toward Better Times

5G Adoption to Surge as 5G Smartphones Proliferate and Prices Tumble

13 October 2020/0 Comments/by Marina Koytcheva
Read more
https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/5G_forecast_connections_October_2020_s.png 320 640 Marina Koytcheva https://www.ccsinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CCS_Insight_logo_101.png Marina Koytcheva2020-10-13 09:52:192020-10-13 09:53:255G Adoption to Surge as 5G Smartphones Proliferate and Prices Tumble

Links

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

© 2020 CCS Insight

Wearables Momentum Continues UK Wearables Sales to Reach Five Million Units in 2016
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Accept settingsHide notification only