Gartner: Smartphone sales grow just 7 percent in 2016 and PC sales fall

Research firm Gartner says smartphone sales growth will fall into the “single digits.” This increases the growth from 14.4 percent in 2015 to just 7 in 2016, which amounts to 1.5 billion smartphones sold. PC sales continue to fall, but pick up in 2017

That growth is declining sharply was already predicted by the same agency last year. Smartphone penetration of over 90 percent in Western Europe, North America, Japan and some parts of Southeast Asia is holding back future growth. In addition, people replace their smartphones less quickly than in previous years. In mature markets, the lifespan of smartphones continues to stretch, now up to 2.5 years. According to the agency, this is not likely to change in the next five years.

Gartner also sees no major growth for China when it comes to smartphone sales. The agency states that the market there is saturated and very competitive, which means that prices are also under pressure. Still, the agency does not suspect that the ‘global complex smartphone market’ will soon have to deal with fewer suppliers of smartphones. Some won’t make it and others will join, including cell phone builders or Internet service providers in China and India.

Gartner does expect the part of sub-Saharan Africa to become more interesting. There, the number of smartphones sold exceeded the number of feature phones sold for the first time.

Gartner thinks PC sales will pick up again from 2017, but this year is likely to be even worse than last year, except for the so-called ultramobiles premium or more expensive laptops and tablets between 7 and 13.9 inches and no heavier than 1 .6kg such as the generally higher-end Microsoft Surface Pro, Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro and Apple MacBook Air.

The share of the traditional PC and laptop consisted of 244 million devices sold in 2015. In 2016, that will probably be 228 million and for 2017 Gartner expects another 5 million less sold. In contrast, the premium ultramobiles will take off. Last year 45 million units were sold, this year probably 57 million and next year Gartner thinks the market will decrease 73 million units.