Smartphones without 4G hardly sell anymore in Western countries

Consumers in Western countries almost exclusively buy smartphones with 4G. Devices with 3G as the fastest mobile network make up only 6 percent of the market, estimates analyst firm IDC. That was 15 percent a year ago.

This means that smartphones without 4G are on the verge of disappearing, according to figures from IDC. With a remaining share of 6 percent, it seems that only the cheapest models come without 4G support. In addition, 4g will become a specification in the near future that manufacturers will also put in feature phones to differentiate their models.

The first phones with 4G support appeared around 2011, while it was common in high-end smartphones for the first time in 2012. In the years that followed, more and more cheap models with support for 4g network technology LTE.

There is often a difference between the support of 4G between various smartphones. Chinese smartphones often do not support the 800 and 900MHz frequencies used in the Benelux. Cheaper phones from brands better known in the west often have these, but they support 4G with lower download and upload speeds and limited support for new techniques such as carrier aggregation.