Combined smartphone sales in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China are likely to increase 5.1 percent this year on an annual basis, with the region retaining its lead over the rest of the world, US researcher Gartner Inc said in a report on Tuesday.
Combined sales in the three areas last year reached 411.35 million units, ahead of all other regions, and the figure is forecast to increase to 432.33 million units this year, the report said.
Gartner attributed the increase mainly to upcoming demand for 5G smartphones and expectations for the launch of Apple Inc’s first 5G iPhone.
With accelerating 5G network rollouts, 5G smartphones are forecast to account for 12 percent of global smartphone sales, which are to grow 3.04 percent year-on-year to 1.57 billion units this year, the report said.
Last year, global smartphone sales contracted by about 2 percent year-on-year, the first decline since 2008, Gartner said.
Gartner research vice president Annette Zimmermann said in the report that “2019 was a challenging year for smartphone vendors, primarily due to oversupply in the high-end sector in mature markets and longer replacement cycles overall.”
“However, in 2020, the market is expected to rebound with the introduction of 5G network coverage in more countries and as users who may have delayed their smartphone purchases until 2020 in expectation of price reductions begin buying again,” Zimmerman said, adding that commercialization of 5G smartphones would accelerate this year.
As “5G phones costing under US$300 have been announced … sales growth of 5G phones is expected to exceed that of 4G phones over 12 months,” she said.
Meanwhile, developing Asia-Pacific nations would see smartphone sales increase from 363.64 million units last year to 376.8 million units this year, maintaining their No. 2 position on the global list, the report said.
Other relatively more developed countries in the region, such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, would witness strong growth of 5.7 percent year-on-year to 31.8 million units, it said.
Japan would see smaller growth of 1.28 percent year-on-year to 32.27 million units this year, it added.
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