5G Helps Revival of Smartphone Sale: IDC

The shipment of 5G phones continue to be a primary driver of 2021 growth as both vendors and channels focus on 5G devices that carry a significantly higher average selling price (ASP) than older 4G devices, a report by IDC said.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, shipments of smartphones are expected to grow 7.4% in 2021, reaching 1.37 billion units, followed by 3.4% growth in 2022 and 2023, respectively. 

While the supply chain situation hasn't drastically improved, the smartphone market has shown positive results in recent quarters, the report stated.

The 7.4% growth can be attributed to a healthy 13.8% growth from iOS devices combined with 6.2% growth from Android, it said.

Although COVID-19 drastically impacted 2020 shipments, 2021 shipments have managed to display minimal growth compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic) volumes, giving a more accurate view of the state of the market, it added.

The world's largest markets – China, the United States, and Western Europe – will still be down from 2019, but growing markets such as India, Japan, the Middle East, and Africa are fueling the recovery, the report added. 

The ASP of a 5G smartphone will reach $634 in 2021, which is flat from $632 in 2020, the report said. 

However, 4G devices continue to witness a massive price decline as the ASP drops to $206, representing a nearly 30% decline from last year ($277). As a result, the total 5G shipment volume will grow to 570 million units, up 123.4% from last year, it noted.

China will continue to lead the market with 47.1% of the 5G global market share, followed by the USA at 16%, India at 6.1%, and Japan at 4.1%. By the end of 2022, 5G units are expected to make up more than half of all smartphone shipments with a 54.1% share, said the report. 

"The smartphone market was better prepared from a supply chain perspective heading into 2020 given almost all regions were expecting to grow and vendors were preparing accordingly," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "2020 was a bust due to the pandemic but all of the top brands continued forward with their production plans with the main difference that the timeline was pushed out. Therefore, we are at a point where inventory levels are much healthier than PCs and some other adjacent markets and we are seeing the resilience of consumer demand in recent quarterly results."