IDC Sees Little Change Coming in Market-Share Battle Between Android, iOS Smartphones

The dynamics of the market-share battle between Android and iOS smartphones will remain virtually unchanged through 2021, as global unit shipments of devices from each platform rise at a compound annual growth rate of just above 3 percent, IDC said in a Tuesday report. It expects overall smartphone shipments to grow to 1.7 billion handsets in 2021 from 1.47 billion in 2016. "The big inflection point that everyone is watching for is when the smartphone market experiences its first year-over-year decline," said IDC. Bringing first-time buyers into the smartphone market is one of the “main catalysts for continued growth,” it said. “At the end of 2016, we estimated that about half of the world's population was using a smartphone, which leaves plenty of room for additional first-time users. And, despite very high saturation levels in mature markets like North America, Western Europe, Korea, and Japan, we still see the majority of users replacing their handsets roughly every two years. We expect these trends will hold through the forecast."