The Smartphone Sales Slowdown is Real (axios.com)

Earnings reports from Samsung and Qualcomm on Wednesday suggest a serious industrywide slowdown in smartphone sales. Samsung's report is especially telling, since it also makes displays and other components for Apple. From a report: The smartphone business is an incredibly crowded space, so a slowdown could lead to even steeper price competition. That's a potential short-term boon for consumers, but could put the hurt on a whole host of technology companies. Samsung's take: Its written outlook was terse and brief, but damning. Of its own phones, it said "[p]rofitability in the mobile business is expected to decline quarter-over-quarter due to stagnant sales of flagship models amid weak demand and an increase in marketing expenses to address the situation." Similarly, it cautioned of weak demand in its display and chip businesses, which supply components for both Samsung and its phone rivals, including Apple. Qualcomm's take: The phone chip giant also predicted a slowdown, cutting its forecast for 3G and 4G smartphones.

Comments

There's not a lot of reason to upgrade a 'Droid

[rsilvergun]

and now that we know why iPhones get slow over time the sames true there. What I want is longer battery life, better connections and faster downloads. And we're a decade out from the last two (waiting for spectrum rollout) and I think we've peaked on battery life. I don't need a faster GPU. I really don't care what my phone games look like.