IDC Sees Global Smartphone Shipments Growing 11.3% This Year

IDC sees global smartphone shipments growing 11.3 percent in 2015, less than half the 27.6 percent growth the market experienced in 2014, the research firm said in a “tracker” report Tuesday. “While overall smartphone growth will continue to slow, many markets will have robust growth in 2015 and beyond, and worldwide shipment volumes are forecast to reach 1.9 billion units annually by 2019.” Though the firm sees iPhones dominating Android smartphones this year in terms of year-over-year growth -- 23 percent vs. 8.5 percent -- it forecasts that iPhones and Android devices will have fairly identical (7.3 percent vs. 7.5 percent) compound annual growth rates through 2019.