Andre Yoskowitz
21 Feb 2016 19:59
According to research firm Gartner, smartphones sales rose to 403 million units in the Q4 2015, 9.7 percent higher year-over-year.
Despite the seemingly high growth, the number is actually the lowest the smartphone industry has ever seen, suggesting that smartphone sales have completely peaked.
Overall, smartphone sales reached 1.4 billion units for the year, an increase of 14.4 percent YoY.
"Low-cost smartphones in emerging markets, and strong demand for premium smartphones, continued to be the driving factors," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "An aggressive pricing from local and Chinese brands in the midrange and entry-level segments of emerging markets led to consumers upgrading more quickly to affordable smartphones."
Samsung remained king, shipping 320 million units for the year, followed by Apple at 225 million. Chinese giant Huawei jumped to 104 million and Lenovo/Motorola fell to 72 million but still took fourth.