IDC Sees 2015 Likely as Last Year of Double-Digit Smartphone Sales Growth

IDC sees 2015 as likely the last year of double-digit percentage smartphone global sales growth, the research firm said in a Thursday report. The 2015 calendar year finished with 1.44 billion smartphones shipped worldwide, up 10.4 percent over 2014, IDC said. It sees 2016 shipments rising 5.7 percent to 1.5 billion. “Mature markets” like the U.S., China and Western Europe all had single-digit growth in 2015, while “high-growth markets” such as India, Indonesia, the Middle East and Africa “all remained healthy,” it said. "The mature market slowdown has some grave consequences for Apple, as well as the high-end Android space, as these were the markets that absorbed the majority of the premium handsets that shipped over the past five years."