India to surpass US as world’s second largest smartphone market
The US smartphone market, recently dethroned from its perch as the world’s largest by China, is set to slip further down the global pecking order after a new report showed it slipping behind India by 2017.
Strategy Analytics predict that Americans will have to make do with third place as India’s massive population makes the shift from feature phones to smartphones.
Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, explained: “China has been the engine of global smartphone growth in recent years, but China is now maturing and slowing. India is fast becoming the next major growth wave. We forecast 118 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2015, increasing strongly to 174 million in 2017.”
India’s mobile revolution mirrors a rapid embrace of the internet on the sub-continent, with the number of those online expected to rise significantly from 243m recorded in 2014 as it plays catch-up with the developed world.
By comparison the US has 279.8m internet users, a figure which represents the vast bulk of the population that leaves little room for future growth.
The report calculates that global smartphone sales will rise from 1.471bn in 2015 to 1.667bn by 2017.