Global 4G Smartphone Shipments Surpass 1 Billion

Big news for the 4G smartphone space.

Though global smartphone sales have been in a bit of a slump as of late, recent data from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker has shown that 4G smartphone shipments surpassed the 1 billion mark this year.

According to the latest forecast, 4G smartphone shipments worldwide are expected to reach 1.45 billion units in 2016, with a year-over-year growth rate of 0.6 percent — down from the 10.4 percent growth in 2015.

Melissa Chau, associate research director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, said in a statement: “It’s been a long slog for 4G uptake in many emerging markets as 4G data tariffs have long been very expensive compared to 3G, while 4G handsets themselves have also been relatively pricey across the board. We are quickly seeing this change in key growth markets like India where new operator Reliance Jio is aggressively trying to shake up the market by handing out free 4G SIM cards and launching own-branded low-cost 4G-enabled smartphones.”

A majority of the growth in the 4G smartphone space is reportedly coming from emerging markets, including the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In those regions, only 61 percent of smartphone shipments were 4G-enabled in 2015, compared to the IDC’s projection of 77 percent in 2016.

Mature 4G smartphone markets in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Western Europe are further along the adoption curve with a reported 85 percent 4G adoption rate in 2015 and a projected 94 percent 4G adoption rate in 2016.

Segmenting smartphone shipments by operating system, the IDC found that only 4G-enabled Android smartphones will have seen positive year-over-year growth, forecasted at 5.2 percent, but since they are projected to hold 85 percent of the market share, with an estimated 2016 shipping volume of 1.23 billion, their influence has resulted in the positive 0.6 percent YoY growth figure percent across the board. Apple and Windows phones both are projected to see a decrease in YoY shipments of -11 percent and -79.1 percent, respectively.