Global Smartphone Industry Outlook for 2018

China’s Top 4 Brands See Steady Growth While Xiaomi Resuming Momentum

In 2017 global smartphone shipment volume is estimated at 1.56 billion units, up 4.2% year-on-year; this is mainly attributed to the rise of the middle class in emerging countries (India, Southeast Asia), which has pushed the replacement demand. Despite the nearly saturated market, the Greater China region continues to be the world's largest smartphone market, accounting for about one-third of the global shipments; the industry's shipment volume peaked at 400 million units in 2014. This report provides global smartphone development overview and the competitiveness analysis of global brands; examines the latest development of the key components like application processor, baseband IC, panel and memory IC; looks into the future development of emerging products and technologies in the areas of the edge-to-edge screen, 3D sensing, and wireless charging.

The Chinese smartphone market has paced faster since 2011, reaching 460 million units in 2017. "As of the third quarter of 2017, the accumulated 4G user base in China topped around 950 million with a penetration rate of 68%, indicating the adoption of 4G smartphones has become more widespread and the future growth will rely highly on replacement demand," says Aaron Lin, senior industry analyst.

"Xiaomi has regained its reign again with its Mi 6/Redmi 4X/MIX 2 and its efforts to develop physical channels and overseas markets have paid off with its shipment volume growing to a new high."

List of Topics

• Development of the global smartphone market, touching on the megatrends, shipment volume forecast until 2018, and shipment share by market segment
• Development of the Chinese smartphone market and includes the 4G user base of three major telecom operators, as well as the Indian mobile phone SIM card and smartphone penetration rate and shipment volume by branded vendor
• Competitive analysis of leading vendors such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, touching on their global share and product deployment strategy
• Development of key components such as application processor and baseband IC, display, and memory IC, with detailed assessment to Qualcomm's processor development roadmap, branded baseband IC providers' global share, and some highlighted topics observed in the display and memory IC sectors.
• Development of emerging products and technologies in the areas of the edge-to-edge screen, 3D sensing, and wireless charging with in-depth assessment into these new technologies