GfK Report Cites ‘Price Polarization’ in North American Smartphone Market

Nearly six in 10 smartphones sold to consumers in Q2 were 4G-enabled, GfK said Monday in a report. GfK said it forecasts 4G smartphone penetration to continue to grow at the expense of 3G, which is currently at 38 percent of smartphone units and forecast to decline by another percentage point by Q4. It cited “significant regional differences” in global 4G smartphone adoption, including “price polarization” in North America and saturation in Western European markets. “The underlying trend of consumers optimizing their digital consumption by screen size, within affordability constraints, continues in all regions,” it said. In North America, smartphone unit sales climbed 10 percent from the same quarter a year earlier in Q2, to 44.4 million, GfK said. Q2 sales of high-end smartphones in North America priced $500 and up and low-end devices priced under $250 grew at the expense of mid-ranged devices, it said. Smartphones in the high end captured 43 percent of smartphone unit share in Q2, up from 38 percent share in Q2 a year earlier. North America and China “were the only regions to see an increase in high-end smartphone unit share on a year-on-year basis,” it said. Globally, smartphone unit volume grew 5 percent in Q2 to 302.1 million from 288.3 million a year earlier, it said.