Gartner Predicts An 11% Worldwide Increase In Smartphone Sales This Year

The firm Gartner forecasts that the Smartphone global market is expecting 11.4 percent growth this year. This would mean 1.5 billion phones will sell out in 2021.

In 2020, due to the Covid19 pandemic, the cellphone market hit hard and faced a decline of 10.5% with a total of 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped which is less than 2019’s 1.5 billion shipments. As per the news report, it is estimated that the market will rebound this year. In addition, markets in the Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and Latin America are also expected to show the strongest growth in 2021.

Specifically, China is expected to buy 40 million more phones than the previous year.

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Table 1. Worldwide Smartphone Sales by Region, 2019-2021 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (February 2021)

Moreover, it is also expected that 5G phones make 35% of the total smartphone sales this year. This would mean 5G phone sales are forecasted to double in comparison to 2020. The reason behind this is the increased availability of 5G networks and the diminishing starting price of 5G phones, which is now only $200. In the future, the starting price is estimated to reduce even more as 5G smartphone chips become even cheaper.

Soon, Qualcomm’s budget chips, the Snapdragon 400 series are getting 5G support. So users can also expect other MediaTek chips featuring 5G in the current year.

However, regardless of rising in sales this year, the figures are not expected to match 2019.