IDC Predicts 14% of Smartphones Shipping Globally Next Year Will Be 5G Models

Three straight years of smartphone market “contraction” will end in 2020 when global smartphone shipments are expected to return to growth on China’s “ambitious 5G plans,” reported IDC Tuesday. IDC forecast 1.5 percent unit growth to slightly more than 1.4 billion smartphones. It predicts 190 million 5G smartphones will ship in 2020. That 14 percent of total smartphones shipped would far exceed the first year of 4G shipments in 2010 when 1.3 percent of shipments were 4G handsets, it said.