Smartphone Shipments Flat For the First Time, Says IDC

An anonymous reader writes: Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 334.9 million smartphones worldwide last quarter. This figure is up just 0.2 percent from the 334.3 million units in Q1 2015, marking the smallest year-over-year growth on record. We saw hints of this in yesterday's Apple earnings report, when the company reported an iPhone sales drop for the first time. Despite the poor state of the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung continues to dominate. In Q1 2016, the South Korean company once again shipped more smartphones than any other vendor.

Comments

Reached good enough.

[LWATCDR]

I don't need to replace my MotoX at all. It runs the latest version of the OS and works well.

Re:Reached good enough.

[npslider]

I feel the same about my iPhone 6. My hands are smaller, so a bigger device is too hard to use one handed. Further refinements to the software are always something I look forward to, but at its core, the phone does all I need it to do. The only reason I would upgrade is if my phone was lost or damaged beyond repair.

Re:Reached good enough.

[OzPeter]

I don't need to replace my MotoX at all. It runs the latest version of the OS and works well.

My original RAZR still runs the latest software for that platform and also works quite well at making phone calls!

Re:Reached good enough.

[butchersong]

Yep. My one plus is still going strong as well. If I bothered to use cases and treat the phone better I'd probably only need to update my phone every 3 years. As it is, wear and tear are the reasons I tend to upgrade. More often that not its the damn micro usb port. Hopefully the type c connectors will be much more durable.

Re:Reached good enough.

[Hadlock]

My 2013 X had some update that causes the radio to stay switched on after a background request, which is nuking the battery. Other than that awful awful bug (ended up using it as an excuse to buy a Nexus 5x) it's been running great. I do especially miss the OLED screen though, LCD displays look awful in comparison.

Re:Reached good enough.

[Matheus]

I'd feel the same way... except for, as with nearly every phone I've owned, the headphone jack no longer functions well!

Motorola: This isn't that hard a concept! *Reinforce the damn jack.

Otherwise I'm looking forward to an unlocked Gen2 Moto-X. My Gen1 is not quite so snappy in its old age and I want the better camera and storage too.

Re:Reached good enough.

[Matheus]

PS. I have difficulty feeling any sympathy for an industry that shipped 1/3 Billion units last year. I'm sorry you can't sustain growth indefinitely but you're selling plenty of product to make lots and lots of money. Fuck off.

Re:Reached good enough.

[ljw1004]

My $75 smartphone isn't "good enough" - it's fine for most apps and phone tasks, but is too slow at complex webpages (usually because of ads, specifically video ads).

I wonder if there's still market opportunity for budget smartphones?

Re:Reached good enough.

[LWATCDR]

Smart phones have reached a state of maturity. They are not improving by leaps and bounds any longer so the upgrade cycle is getting longer. PCs have been that way for a while now and now phones and tablets have reached that point.
Sorry but the days of massive growth are probably over for a while. Maybe if you see a massive increase in the middle class in India, China, Latin America, and or Africa but then you will probably see the growth in local companies and not the current producers like Apple and Samsung.

Re: Reached good enough.

[avatar avatar]

I was arguing this with the last gen. I can surf the Web, watch videos, etc. without noticeable lag, so what motivation is there to continually upgrade? The only real limitation is the physical life of the device, which I fear manufacturers have more incentive to disregard than improve.

Re:Reached good enough.

[macs4all]

Smart phones have reached a state of maturity. They are not improving by leaps and bounds any longer so the upgrade cycle is getting longer. PCs have been that way for a while now and now phones and tablets have reached that point. Sorry but the days of massive growth are probably over for a while. Maybe if you see a massive increase in the middle class in India, China, Latin America, and or Africa but then you will probably see the growth in local companies and not the current producers like Apple and Samsung.

This is exactly what I said yesterday (that phones and tablets were now a "mature" market), when all the slashtards were out claiming that Apple was doomed, because iPhone sales weren't growing as fast as usual.

But, as I suspected, it isn't just Apple...

Re:Reached good enough.

[JanneM]

[...]it's fine for most apps and phone tasks, but is too slow at complex webpages (usually because of ads, specifically video ads).

Install an adblocker. Free, unlike getting a new phone, and it'll help your monthly data usage as well.

Re:Reached good enough.

[antdude]

No ad blockers for smartphones? :(

Re:Reached good enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

firefox + abp, works for me too.

Re:Reached good enough.

[BlackPignouf]

+1. My old Nokia broke 3 months ago, and there's basically no cheap durable dumbphone à la Nokia anymore on the market.
So I've bought my first smartphone, a 2nd hand Moto G 1st Gen. It does everything I need and much more, and it would be like an upgrade to an iPhone 12 for someone already used to modern smartphones.
Obligatory relatex XKCD : https://xkcd.com/606/

Re:Reached good enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

If I bothered to use cases and treat the phone better I'd probably only need to update my phone every 3 years.

Are smart phones still that crappy?

3 years is pretty short, it's pretty much how long most PCs lasted back when a PC was outdated the moment it left the factory. Not because of faults, but simply because software requirements increased exponentially.

I'd demand 3 years for heavy abuse, and a lot more for something you treat well.

Re:Reached good enough.

[LWATCDR]

And it is not like Apple is not making lots of money.

Re:Reached good enough.

[macs4all]

And it is not like Apple is not making lots of money.

Exactly. That not not true (sorry, couldn't resist!).

Re:Reached good enough.

[LWATCDR]

I kind of feel that way about PCs if I do not get double the performance it is not worth upgrading. My Sandybridge macbook is just fine for what I need it for. I am thinking of replacing the bettery and putting in an SSD.

Re:Reached good enough.

[MoarSauce123]

That is one reason, but not the main reason why sales are flat. Those who already are willing to afford a smartphone and the ridiculously overpriced data plans will keep buying new models eventually. Where vendors are hitting a roadblock is with service providers who charge way too much for data service. Provide a decent, low cost, unlimited data plan and many more will be willing to buy a smartphone.

Product Maturity

[npslider]

It seems smart phones have reached a point where the features and abilities have plateaued. Augmented reality headsets are the next step, keep people from getting mowed down in crosswalks by traffic!

Re:Product Maturity

[MightyMartian]

My Nexus 5, now over two years old, works fine, and still works with the latest version of Android. It did have an issue with reporting the SIM card missing, but it turned out all I needed to do was take the case off and just re-insert the SIM card, so to my great relief I didn't have to buy a new phone.

My daughter needs a new phone, so I'll probably end up getting a new one for Christmas this year, and gift mine to her. I did that with my iPhone 4, and it is just now that the phone is starting to have some hardware issues.

Re:Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

My daughter needs a new phone, so I'll probably end up getting a new one for Christmas this year, and gift mine to her.

You: "Hey family, check out my new phone! It's got everything! Oh, here you go sweetie, here's my old phone...merry Christmas!

Your daughter: "Gee, thanks Dad! This is the best Christmas ever!"

You are a bad parent and an awful person. If your daughter needs a new phone, then get her a NEW PHONE you fucking cheapskate.

Re:Product Maturity

[MightyMartian]

As low a creature as I am, at least I'm not an AC

Re:Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

My Nexus 5, now over two years old, works fine, and still works with the latest version of Android. It did have an issue with reporting the SIM card missing, but it turned out all I needed to do was take the case off and just re-insert the SIM card, so to my great relief I didn't have to buy a new phone.

So, you're glad you don't need to buy a new phone because you're perfectly happy with the one you've got, but by the time Christmas rolls around YOU will be the one needing a new phone for some reason, and your daughter should just be happy to get a >2 year old phone from Santa.

What kind of alternate universe do you live in where daughters take a back seat to fathers? Is it the one where Spock has a beard? More importantly, what does your wife have to say about this little plan of yours?

As low a creature as I am, at least I'm not an AC

I don't know dude. Maybe you should have posted as AC in the first place. Then everyone wouldn't know what a dick you are.

Re: Product Maturity

[pchasco]

First world problems. Obviously AC lives in a region of the country where money grows on trees. Maybe it doesn't make munch sense to buy a kid a $600 dollar phone that she will probably lose or break in six months anyway?

Re:Product Maturity

[MightyMartian]

I think most people who even read this particular thread know who the dick is.

Re:Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

You're either trolling, or you don't have kids, and don't know anyone with kids.

This is perfectly normal, accepted behaviour.

Re: Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously AC lives in a region of the country where money grows on trees.

How do you come to that conclusion based on what he said?

Re: Product Maturity

[pchasco]

"You are a bad parent and an awful person. If your daughter needs a new phone, then get her a NEW PHONE you fucking cheapskate."

Re: Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

I see dicks everywhere. It's like dick-o-vision in here.

Re:Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Daddy,

I'm sorry I tried to guilt you into buying me a new phone for Christmas by trolling you on slashdot as an Anonymous Coward.

Signed,

Your loving Daughter

Re: Product Maturity

[Anonymous Coward]

You arent reading, the OP already said he was willing to buy a new phone if one was needed, so how does that translate to the replying AC implying that "money grows on trees"? The AC suggested no additional expenditure beyond what the OP had already suggested.

That's because most phones are good enough.

[XxtraLarGe]

I had an iPhone 4 for 4 years (oddly never experienced the reception problem), then upgraded to an iPhone 6 Plus. I'll probably have that one for 4 years as well. It makes phone calls, sends email, browses the web, lets me play games or read books during down time. Newer features such as pressure sensitive screens or "live" photos, 3D photos, or being able to pour a bottle of champagne on them aren't really killer features. Mostly they strike me as gimmicks that don't give me an overwhelming desire to upgrade.

Re:That's because most phones are good enough.

[npslider]

One killer feature that may motivate me to upgrade would be a fully water-proof design and a built in airbag to protect against accidental drop damage.

Re:That's because most phones are good enough.

[AuMatar]

I remember when live photos were called video.

Re:That's because most phones are good enough.

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

I see "live photos" more as a "short video with a poster image taken from the middle of the video".

Re:That's because most phones are good enough.

[Locke2005]

I call that a "porn web site thumbnail".

Re: That's because most phones are good enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I remember when animated gifs were called video."

Re:That's because most phones are good enough.

[Maxo-Texas]

Inexpensive silicone cases protect both my devices which i drop constantly.

Fortunately, I don't have a problem with water.

Egads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Egads. Perhaps people should start predicting the death of the smart phone the way they keep predicting the death of the desktop.

Re: Egads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only fags say egads.

Re: Egads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only fags say egads.

Only cretins say fags

Re: Egads.

[avatar avatar]

Only snoots say cretins.

"Poor State"...???

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry...

The market for smartphones INCREASED, but it's somehow in a "poor state".....?

Lol.... You must be like a day-trader or something????

**ONLY** under CAPITALISM does this make ANY SENSE, WAHTSOEVER....

Re: "Poor State"...???

[pr0fessor]

They are going to have to start increasing the population if they want to keep increasing the unit sales of smart phones

Re: "Poor State"...???

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite the poor state of the worldwide smartphone market

What the fucking fuck?????

Doing a quick Google shows that total worldwide sales of phones averaged more than 300 million units per quarter in 2014 and 2015. Adding in the sales for the first quarter of this year, that's roughly 2.7 Billion phones since the beginning of 2014.

Too much is never enough.

Re: "Poor State"...???

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, in Capitalism, the market is in a "poor state" only for the producers. It's a great state for the buyers.

Now there's going to be a glut of extra smart phones with nobody to buy them. What happens when there's a large supply and a low demand? The price drops. So those who couldn't justify the cost of a smart phone will soon be able to do so.

The market is a -great- state, and only getting better.

The people complaining that the market is in a poor state aren't capitalists - they're mercantilists.

Re: "Poor State"...???

[Captain Splendid]

Actually, in Capitalism, the market is in a "poor state" only for the producers. It's a great state for the buyers.

That's a great point, but it only reinforces GP's narrative because 99% of "financial" news is made by and for the producers. Fuck the rest of us.

Waiting for vendors to get real

[WillAffleckUW]

Why should I shell out $500 every year when I can just wait until they have something that is a real improvement in three years?

And that fits in my fricking pocketses!

Re:Waiting for vendors to get real

[Anonymous Coward]

This is important right here to why it is flat. People are not going to dump 500-600 every 2 years.

Growth was jumping with the carriers were subsidizing. Now they all of them have pretty much stopped doing so. Well you can see what happened.

Re:Waiting for vendors to get real

[captaindomon]

I have to say, I'm happy that Apple seems to be indicating with the iPhone SE that they are going to continue manufacturing small but smart devices. I think we're coming to the end of the "size wars" in smartphones. At some point it just doesn't make sense.

Re:Waiting for vendors to get real

[inode_buddha]

"Why should I shell out $500 every year when I can just wait until they have something that is a real improvement in three years?"

Because these poor starving companies depend upon you to do your patriotic duty to support the economy and buy new shit as often as possible... after all you're not some kind of greedy socialist are ya?

Re:Waiting for vendors to get real

[WillAffleckUW]

Um, they make them in China or S Korea. Why not just buy them for $99 from those countries, if Apple and other firms won't pay US taxes on said earnings?

Fair is Fair.

Re:Waiting for vendors to get real

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to upgrade your shirt.

captcha: obedient

I've never had one.

[Anonymous Coward]

My landline phone does everything I need a phone to do. My computer does computer stuff. I see no need to mix the two.

Re:I've never had one.

[EndlessNameless]

A pocket-sized, internet-connected computer is extremely useful in some cases.

These are predominantly new use cases based on user mobility---so yes, your regular computer is still better if you can sit at a desk to use it. Lots of things cannot be done at a desk or at home, and that is where smartphones shine.

I use my phone more than my laptop during business travel, and I am eagerly awaiting the day I can leave the laptop behind entirely.

Re:I've never had one.

[Anonymous Coward]

My landline phone does everything I need a phone to do. My computer does computer stuff. I see no need to mix the two.

Funny you should mention that. A few days ago I saw an ad on television for Amazon's Fire phone. It shows a man and woman sitting on the couch in their living room, trying to decide what movie to watch on their phone.

Wait . . . what?

Yes, I'm old. And yes, I have actually told people to get off my lawn. But I have a 55 inch television in my living room, a 27 inch monitor on the computer I'm currently using to type this (a computer which is also quite a bit more powerful and capable than your phone or your tablet), and a 16 inch screen on my laptop (which is also quite a bit more powerful and capable than your phone or your tablet).

In what bizaarro, ass-backwards universe do I want to watch a movie on a phone. With a 5 inch screen.

After 30 years of massive improvements in technology, we are now actually going backwards. Hundreds of millions of people rushing out to buy devices that are LESS capable.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Re:I've never had one.

[NatasRevol]

I don't want to watch a movie on my phone, but I do often search for a good movie to watch on my phone while having a conversation with the wife/friend/kid. Then go torrent it & watch it on the big screen.

Re:I've never had one.

[inode_buddha]

Marry me?

Re:I've never had one.

[MightyMartian]

I use mine as a router when I'm out of town. Generally the quality of hotel WiFi is so terrible that I end up tethering. I have an SSH and RDP client on my phone, not pleasant to use, but in an emergency when I have to talk to the office servers, it will do. It's a damned handy device.

Re:I've never had one.

[Locke2005]

My landline phone does everything I need a phone to do. My computer does computer stuff. I see no need to mix the two.

That's just great, since you never leave your mom's basement!

Re:I've never had one.

[Locke2005]

You realize that smart phones can now send the video to smart TVs, right? Ever heard of Chromecast?

Re:I've never had one.

[Quirkz]

Other than preferring a cell phone to a landline phone, I mostly agree. I don't like intermediate devices. Never could get into tablets, for instance, and when I want to use a computer I generally want to set down with a large screen and a keyboard and use a proper computer.

That said, there are a couple of things that a smart phone does that I wouldn't use for a computer, like an interactive map as I travel. I also occasionally find it useful for on-the-fly information gathering, such as if I'm already out and want to know if a store or restaurant is open, or see what a movie time is, or if I'm directed someplace new and need to look up an address. Much easier to just look it up than either try to get the information from someone else, or take a detour back home before heading out again.

One of the oddest uses has been while standing in a hardware store, unable to find what I want, sometimes it's more efficient to use the phone to look up the aisle/bay location than it is to track down an employee to show me the way.

Re:I've never had one.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's funny, everyone I know who lives in their mom's basement is tethered to their smart phone, and everyone I know who rejects a cell phone is in their 30's or 40's and salaried. Now, there's clearly some sampling bias, but the basement dwellers are most likely to waste money on a cell phone when they remain in wifi range their whole lives.

Re: I've never had one.

[avatar avatar]

All great points, but airport gate attendants still seem rather nonplussed whenever you ask them where onboard you can plug in a 55" LCD.

Re:I've never had one.

[tepples]

Even salaried employees need something to do while riding transit to and from work.

Re:I've never had one.

[tepples]

My landline phone does everything I need a phone to do.

Including arrange a ride home after the city buses have stopped running for the night or weekend, if you happen to be where a payphone used to be?

Re:I've never had one.

[Anonymous Coward]

I see your point and I agree with you but what does the power of a desktop and laptop relative to a phone have to do with watching a movie?

After 30 years of massive improvements in technology, we are now actually going backwards. Hundreds of millions of people rushing out to buy devices that are LESS capable.

I'm used to navigating with my phone, doing it on the TV is much more clunky so the ability to cast content from my phone to my TV is great! Sure I have a laptop and desktop that are both more powerful than my phone too but what difference does that make in this context?

Re:I've never had one.

[Plumpaquatsch]

My landline phone does everything I need a phone to do. My computer does computer stuff. I see no need to mix the two.

Funny you should mention that. A few days ago I saw an ad on television for Amazon's Fire phone. It shows a man and woman sitting on the couch in their living room, trying to decide what movie to watch on their phone.

Well, judging by the sales numbers of the Fire devices, nobody wants that. At least not on Fire.

Re:I've never had one.

[vakuona]

Well, Amazon Video in not available on the Apple TV. However, it is available on the iPhone, and it allows one to "AirPlay" it to the Apple TV. So, when I want to watch something on Amazon TV, I get the iPhone out and watch it on the 40" TV in HD.As soon as it it outputting to AirPlay, the app becomes a remote control of sorts. Oh, and the iPhone also works as a more capable remote for the Apple TV than the official Apple TV remote.

Smartphones are more capable in some respects than PCs. It's a lot harder to do that on a PC without fiddling.

Re:I've never had one.

[Mike Frett]

That's overly complicated. Why would he want to use his phone to stream something to his TV? He can just get DirecTV or something and flip through the guide to watch or record something. If he isn't happy he can view something from DirecTV On Demand, record it and keep it for the life of the Reciever; heck he can even plug his receiver into his computer and "tape" it.

A Smart Phone really isn't all that smart, sorry. Really, you Z Generation Kids are missing out.

Re:That's because ONLY apps can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy fuck, I can feel the autistic rage against apps from this imbecile.

Everyone is going to keep using them, jackass. Find something else to froth over before you have a coronary.

Of course they did...

[yodleboy]

The current trend in mobile carriers in the US is moving away from the "free with 2 year contract" sales gimmick and phone subsidies. With AT&T the payment options are now pay full price up front, or essentially a 0% financing option over a term you pick from 12 to 36 months. Let me tell you from very recent personal experience, seeing the cost of a new smartphone clearly stated as $700 or x$ per month puts a very fast damper on the desire for a new shiny. I clicked cancel and decided to stick with my perfectly serviceable 2 year old phone for the foreseeable future.

tldr; consumers are finally seeing the real cost of the phones and are walking the other way.

Re: That's because ONLY apps can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

You too can app on only minutes a day!

Do you feel sluggish? Always feeling down?

Hi, App Apperson here with an exciting new product that is sure to change how you live life.

Just use this app twice a day and soon you will feel like a new app!

Two obvious reasons I can see

[Xamindar]

1) There are not any killer new features, and in most cases of the 2016 flagship phones, features have been removed (wireless charging, replaceable battery, sd card slot). Why would I upgrade my phone for a slightly faster processor and more ram, while losing all these features of my past phone? I just replaced the battery in my Note 2 and now it will last all day on one charge again, instead of 45 minutes on the original battery. 2) Carriers have stopped "subsidizing" phones (this is a good thing). While they really didn't subsidize them before, the price was hidden in the service cost. Now they list the full price and clearly state the extra amount you will have to pay each month to pay the phone off. Why renew my contract and be locked in to paying full price for a new phone for two years when I can just continue using the one I have? Not to mention I can just wait a little for the price to drom and then buy the phone outright at a discount.

Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

The new Samsung phones that are tied to AT&T/Verizon have been made to refuse booting when rooted.
For that reason alone, I've decided not to upgrade my phone. If I can't control the privacy settings, block bloatware on my communication device that drains my battery and using up bandwidth, then there's no way I'm going to upgrade, no matter how good the new features have.

Samsung's bowing down to AT&T and Verizon, going with the Apple Walled Garden restrictive philosophy.

Re:Samsung

[magarity]

The new Samsung phones that are tied to AT&T/Verizon have been made to refuse booting when rooted.
For that reason alone, I've decided not to upgrade my phone.

For this reason alone, I decided to upgrade my phone... when I left Verizon for TMobile, whose phones don't seem to have a problem with installing alternates such as cyanogenmod.

But you need to upgrade

[thegarbz]

The iPhone 6 SE is so much better because it has a .... erm..... Well the Galaxy S7 includes a fingerpr..... it includes a payme.....

Why the heck should I upgrade my phone?

Re:But you need to upgrade

[starless]

I need to upgrade my Samsung S4 because the battery goes flat very quickly (even though I replaced it with a new one) and it keeps telling me I'm running out of storage space and things will stop working. Even though it appears to have 0.5 GB free I'm slowly having to delete apps to keep it going for another week or so each time I remove one.

Am I being too paranoid in suspecting the manufacturer and/or carrier are deliberately causing my phone problems?

Re:But you need to upgrade

[Locke2005]

The Galaxy S7 has a much better fingerprint scanner than the S5, which worked on the "swipe you finger 20 times then type in your passcode" principle. However, they omitted the infrared transmitter, which probably saved them a whole 25 cents in parts costs. In general, I agree that the latest phones offer no compelling reasons to upgrade.

Re:But you need to upgrade

[GTRacer]

Can't comment on battery cos I replaced my S4's battery and got normal life back. I have had the "mystery dissapearing storage" issue - turns out there were files in a hidden directory not counted by the space cleaning wizard.

Something you may want to consider, even though it's a bit of a pain - Do a full backup, then a total wipe + factory reset (if you can). Then reinstall.

Re:But you need to upgrade

[iampiti]

Space management is a freaking hell in Android and I say that as someone who otherwise loves the platform.
I recently (also have an s4) had space troubles and it turns out a system app called "download manager" or something like that (sorry I don't remember and also my phone is in Spanish) was using around 1GB of cache.
Also, new smartphones should have a minimum 32GB of internal memory and it'd be nice if Android allowed apps being installed (completely, not partially like some allow now) install apps in MicroSD cards.

Re:But you need to upgrade

[thegarbz]

So minor incremental stuff then. Good to know innovation is high on the agenda.

I bet saturation curves are common

[Anonymous Coward]

The first time I noticed a saturation curve for a technology was in the Smithsonian. It was a graph showing the percentage of US households with TVs. IIRC, it was a very steep curve in the late 50s and early 60s. By the 70s it was definitely flattening out. I bet this is a common thing for most consumer technology.

I can imagine

[Bender Unit 22]

I am still using my iPhone 5 and I don't feel the need to replace it yet. I got the battery replaced so I am fine.
It still plays my podcasts, streams, read emails, GPS navigation, tracking by bike rides and the phone calls now and then.
When I upgraded from the iPhone 4 to 5, I felt like the $900(-$380 for selling the old 4) I paid for the new phone, wasn't really worth the upgrade at the time.
The size of the iPhone 6 and the camera bump didn't make me want to replace my current phone. :D

Now they say that the new SE has much better battery time so perhaps, hmm,, no.

Re:I can imagine

[Anonymous Coward]

Have to respond anonymously so I don't undo my mods.

The only reason I can argue for upgrading is: Paying with TouchID is great, and (at least where I live) is finally becoming an available option at a fair number of the stores I frequent.

But, yeah, I'm not planning to upgrade from my 6 Plus for a long time - probably for as long as it remains functional.

Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Smartphone shipments were also flat between 1960 and 1978...

I'd rather curse the ground and evolve wings

[Thud457]

Does this mean that we're nearing a smartphone event horizon and the whole economy is going to collapse? Where then will we ever procure lemon-soaked paper napkins?

bad abstract

[pD-brane]

> Despite the poor state of the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung continues to dominate.

This doesn't make sense. Firstly, why call a flattening a 'poor state' of the market? Secondly, even if the state is poor, that does not relate to who dominates the market.

42% Others

[danbob999]

It would be interesting to know at least the top 10 manufacturers.

For the first time?

[CCarrot]

Smartphone Shipments Flat For the First Time

So what...were they round before??

That must have been a shipping nightmare! ;-)

Re:For the first time?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they were as high as they were wide. Shipments, not individual devices.

A flat shipment would be one with only one or two layers on the pallet.

Peak Device Hype for this cycle.

[BigU 03C0mpin]

The only reason I upgrade phones is because my wife keeps letting the kids break hers. She gets my hand me down, I get the flagship.

I'm starting to think we've hit a point of peak device hype and maybe consumerism is slowing down. This should frighten the crap out of corporations since the only thing that could be leading to this is the possibility that the largest shopping generation (Y/millenials) are actually savvy about learning via the internet and realize they've been duped into spending everything to make the old cronies more wealthy.

So What?

[djbckr]

I really just don't get why this is news, or a surprise to anybody. There comes a point when you sell so many that you will saturate the market, and this is exactly what has happened. It's not like they aren't selling, it's just that things have reached a point and that's that.

And the next thing: Why is it such big news that Apple's sales have leveled off. Seriously, it's the same issue, and what does it really matter? I am, in fact, an Apple fan (my household has 7 various Apple devices), but I fail to see what the BFD is regarding the leveling off of sales. Is it just because the rich aren't getting quite as rich?

Re:So What?

[Tough Love]

Why is it such big news that Apple's sales have leveled off.

Not levelled off. Dropped. Like the proverbial rock.

Re:That's because ONLY apps can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking of autistic rage...

Psst

[Anonymous Coward]

'Shipping' isn't the same thing as 'selling'.

Nevertheless, yes, I think it's safe to call it mature tech at this point. They are now ubiquitous, and improvements will be incremental.

Commodity hardware awaits

[The Conductor]

So, if the smartphone market has matured, commodity hardware can't be far behind. When Sammy & Apple can't get an edge on features, people will buy the cheapest and standardization drives down cost. Standardized hardware lends itself to open-source software. The biggest obstacle to flashing Sailfish on my N9 (how's that for clinging to old hardware?) is device drivers. Sailfish on iPhone hardware would be pretty cool. Small value-add shops can craft custom solutions. Imagine a local shop that can supply a phone tied, with encrypted links at the OS level, to your own cloud server, and the shop arranges for a contractor to bury the server in your backyard under 10 tons of concrete. Silicon Valley isn't interested in providing such solutions, but in a commodity world Big Data can be democratized.

Re:Commodity hardware awaits

[Tough Love]

The $800 smartphone is going the way of the $3000 laptop. Further growth will be in numbers, not in total market dollars, at least in hardware. Software and online services will continue growing exponentially for the foreseeable future. Apple has a serious problem on its hands, or at least, the windfall profits of the last decade will drift away into ancient history. Apple's best bet is to jack up online service prices for its slowly declining fan base, much the way Microsoft keeps tightening the screws on its hapless OEMs and gullible users. But that doesn't last forever, and just how comfortable will you be trusting Apple or Microsoft to keep your private data secure and private? The big growth will be in non-aligned providers who have not yet given reason to doubt their trustworthiness. For the two most recent holders of most the bloated corporate monster title, the party is winding down, the guests are heading for the door. It's kind of hard to shed a tear, given the decades of bad acting and cynical, borderline illegal profiteering.

Want != need a new phone

[tepples]

If your daughter needs a new phone, then get her a NEW PHONE

I read the claim as that a minor daughter is unlikely to need a new phone. Want perhaps, need unlikely.

Another way of saying it...

[Tough Love]

Apple down, Android up.

rofl

[Anonymous Coward]

Big deal smartstuffs are still the future. Everyone should have a smartphone with free internet connection. One should be given to every new born babies...

subsidies?

[wyHunter]

Perhaps because there are fewer carrier subsidies in large markets such as the USA, so fewer people are buying these expensive phones?