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We're No Longer in Smartphone Plateau. We're in the Smartphone Decline. (nymag.com)
The days of double-digit smartphone growth are over -- and the next decade may start to see smartphone sales decline. A report adds: From roughly 2007 until 2013, the smartphone market grew at an astonishing pace, posting double-digit growth year after year, even during a global recession. They were the good years, the type that would inspire a Scorsese montage: millions and then billions of smartphones going out; billions and then trillions of dollars in rising company valuations; every year new models of phones hitting the market, held up triumphantly at events that were part sales pitch, part tent revival. (To nail the Scorsese effect, imagine "Jumpin' Jack Flash" playing while you think about it.)
But just like every Scorsese movie, the party ends. Smartphone growth began to slow starting in 2013 or 2014. In 2016, it was suddenly in the single digits, and in 2017 global smartphone shipments, for the first time, actually declined -- fewer smartphones were sold than in 2017 than in 2016. Every smartphone manufacturer is now facing a world where, at best, they can hope for single-digit growth in smartphone sales -- and many seem to be preparing for a world where they face declines.
But just like every Scorsese movie, the party ends. Smartphone growth began to slow starting in 2013 or 2014. In 2016, it was suddenly in the single digits, and in 2017 global smartphone shipments, for the first time, actually declined -- fewer smartphones were sold than in 2017 than in 2016. Every smartphone manufacturer is now facing a world where, at best, they can hope for single-digit growth in smartphone sales -- and many seem to be preparing for a world where they face declines.
The market is saturated. Phones are good enough and not enough people care about a new camera to justify buying a new one. Smartphones, from any manufacturer, are not status symbols anymore.
Why do we need article after article to tell us the obvious?
I hate fat people.
They call them smartphones but they behave like dumbphones, making the user and everyone else involved dumber. They are designed to keep you dumb. The novelty of the name "smartphone" has worn off a long time ago.
I'd put this under
- super useful while winter camping
Price creep the last few years has been out of hand while the actual feature changes have slowed to a crawl or even gone backwards (looking for you headphones jack). Especially with "certain" greedy manufacturers who were recently charging $100 for 16 or 32GB of flash. Even now, $150 to go from 64 to 256 is a ripoff.
People simply don't need the new phones because there's nothing to differentiate them. It's not even sexy or shiny when you can't tell the difference...especially when you're force to stuff them in a case that doubles the size.
I'm still waiting for someone to take the chance on a thicker phone with a real battery. Apple did actually go a bit thicker on some of their latest phones but i don't think they actually added significant battery capacity.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
Everyone I know "wants" a new phone, but they don't want to pay a grand.
You have it backwards. People DON'T want new phones. Their existing phones are "good enough", so they are waiting longer and longer between upgrades.
Since upgrade cycles are longer, the phone makers can only maintain revenues by pushing up the price of new phones, and adding silly features to justify the higher price. So far this strategy is working, with record revenues even in the face of falling unit sales.
I have a 4 year old iPhone 6. It works fine. I have no plans to replace it.
Anyone that shallow is probably hot...
Beware of the Leopard.