On the occasion of IFA 2017 in Berlin, the German consumer research association (GfK) presented its results on the global development of the telecommunications market. In the first half of 2017, smartphones continued to smartphones continued to be one of the largest growth engines in the consumer goods sector, despite the rising average price.
The analysis is based on insights from the telecom-trade-panel, where GfK regularly collects data on mobile and fixed telephone networks, tablets, mobile accessories and wearable devices on a global scale in more than 75 countries.
The following results are central:
- In the first half of 2017, around 700 million smartphones have been sold worldwide – that is a five percent increase compared to the previous year.
- The strongest demand growth occurred in the emerging markets of Asia (16 percent), Central and Eastern Europe (11 percent) and Latin America (11 percent). Growth in these regions overcompensated the stagnation in the saturated markets of Western Europe, the industrialized countries of Asia as well as North America.
- Overall, consumers are receiving a better price-performance ratio for new smartphones despite the moderately rising prices.
- Hence, consumers spend more money on their smartphones than in 2016 – but in return, they receive more powerful devices in terms of storage capacity, processor performance, battery life as well as impact- and moisture protection.
- In Western Europe, the demand for Wearables (Smartwatches, health and fitness trackers, wrist sports computers such as GPS pulse watches) rose by 22 percent between January and June 2017. Fitness-trackers represent the highest share of sales volume with fifty percent, followed by Smartwatches (31 percent), which in turn generate the highest revenue.
In its analysis, GfK defines Western Europe as markets in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The emerging markets of Asia include India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The regions of North America, Western Europe and the APAC industries (Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) constitute the group of western industrialized countries.
Source: German consumer research association GfK
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