GfK (Growth and Knowledge) has just released a new report regarding smartphone sales for last year. According to this market research company, 2017 actually set some records. Global smartphone average sales price had a record YoY (Year-on-Year) growth in the fourth quarter of last year. Interestingly enough, the global smartphone demand also grew in the fourth quarter of last year, by 1 percent YoY, while average sales price increased by 10 percent YoY.
GfK also mentions that smartphone demand in 2017 totaled 1.46 billion units, and it generated revenue of $479 billion, overall. Smartphone demand was primarily driven by the Middle East and Africa, notes GfK, which experienced an 8 percent growth, while Central and Eastern Europe grew by seven percent. Global smartphone average sales price, ASP for short, increased by 10 percent YoY to $363, which is also its fastest growth rate ever. Now, GfK also released smartphone sales YoY comparison for 2016 and 2017, and also a separate chart for Q4 2016 and Q4 2017. These two charts take a closer look at smartphone sales and percentage changes that occurred along the way. We will take a closer look at the overall chart, the one which compares 2016 and 2017 as a whole, while you can check out the Q4 2016 vs Q4 2017 charts down below, it’s the second image in the gallery.
Now, it’s worth noting that this data was collected in over 75 markets, and it’s monthly data combined into yearly data, which is presented in the aforementioned charts (first image down below). In 2016, 198.2 million smartphones were sold in North America, while that number increased to 201.3 million in 2017, which means that the smartphone sales rose by 2 percent. The largest increase in smartphone sales between 2016 and 2017 occurred in Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America, both of those regions have seen smartphone sales increases of 9 percent, 85.2 million smartphones were sold in Central and Eastern Europe (compared to 78 million in 2016), while companies sold 115.8 million devices in Latin America (compared to 105.9 million in 2016). ‘Emerging Asia Markets’ have seen an increase of 8 percent, 232.7 million smartphones were sold in those markets in 2017, compared to 214.5 million in 2016. Now, interestingly enough, ‘Developed Asia’ markets have seen a drop of 6 percent as far as smartphone sales are concerned, 68.5 million smartphones were sold, compared to 72.9 million in 2016. Now, if you’d like to know which areas are included in ‘developed’ and which in ‘emerging’ Asia lists, well, take a look at the third image in the gallery down below. If you’d like to check out the status of other areas in 2017, compared to 2016, all the necessary info is included in the gallery.
