The first quarter of this year ended with 347 million units sold but revenues are still in the black
Global sales of mobile devices is down two per cent compared to last year according to GfK.
Throughout the first quarter of this year 347 million units were sold compared with developed areas such as China, developed Asia, Western Europe and North America all seeing declines in demand between two and six per cent.
Despite the decrease in shipments, global revenues from handsets continued to grow as the average price of handsets leaped 21 per cent year on year. The increase equated to an 18 per cent growth in revenues to $129.8 billion (£92.9Bn).
In Western Europe shipments declined two per cent compared to Q1 2017 however Great Britain saw the highest decline in shipments of 11 per cent over the period with Spain following, down by seven per cent year on year. However a 26 per cent increase in the average price per handset still managed to boost revenues by 23 per cent to $14.5 billion (£10.3Bn).
GfK telecom expert Arndt Polifke said: “We start the year with a very different picture to the final quarter of 2017, when smartphone demand records were broken. In the first quarter of 2018 by comparison, there was a year-on-year decline in global smartphone demand.
“It’s perhaps no surprise as we hit saturation point in more markets. On the other hand, consumers are tending to choose higher-priced models as they embrace the latest innovations offered by smartphone brands. As a result, the average sales price grew by an astonishing 21 percent year-on-year to USD 374. This led to 18 percent revenue growth globally, which is exceptional for a maturing industry.”
