GfK Upgrades Global Smartphone Forecast, But North America Sales Still in Decline

Analysis of the latest global smartphone sales trends spurred GfK to upgrade its forecast for the year, the research firm said in a Friday report. GfK now thinks 2016 smartphone sales will approach $426 billion in value, which would be a 5 percent increase from 2015, the company said. GfK’s previous forecast was for 2016 sales to approach $401 billion. The company cited strong Q2 sales of mid-range to high-end smartphones and a reversal of the “previous trend” in which low-end handsets priced on average below $100 had been gaining significant global share. But the North American smartphone market keeps trending downward, GfK said. It estimates Q2 smartphone demand there totaled 42 million units, down 5 percent sequentially from Q1 and 6 percent lower than shipments in Q2 of 2015. “Previous drivers of demand” in North America, such as the migration from 3G to 4G, “are having less of an impact now that the high growth phase is over, the company said. North America “will need to wait” until Q4 for “the next incremental driver of growth” to take hold, it said. “It is in the last quarter of the year that major product launches are expected to have a higher impact, compared to 2015. Consumers that have been waiting for big launches will be ready to invest in upgrades.”