Statistics and facts about Smartphones

Smartphones, mobile phones with more advanced computing capabilities and connectivity than regular mobile phones, came onto the consumer market in the late 90s, but only gained mainstream popularity with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in 2007. The iPhone revolutionized the industry by offering customer friendly features such as a touch screen interface and a virtual keyboard. The first smartphone running on Android was introduced to the consumer market in late 2008. The smartphone industry has been steadily developing and growing since then, both in market size, as well as in models and suppliers. By 2017, over a third of the world’s population is projected to own a smartphone, an estimated total of almost 2.6 billion smartphone users in the world.

About a quarter of all smartphone users in the world will be located in China by 2018, with more than half of the population in China projected to use a smartphone by then. Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to add up to 1.8 billion in 2019. China is also the world’s largest global smartphone market in terms of shipments, accounting for 30 percent of all smartphone shipments in the world in 2015. China alone generated around a hundred billion U.S. dollars in the sale of smartphones in 2014. In 2015, the United States held about 12 percent of the market share, while India accounted for 7.6 percent of all shipments. By 2019, India is expected to pass the United States in shipments.

Until the first quarter of 2011, Nokia was the leading smartphone vendor worldwide, with 24 percent of the share. Today, however, Samsung is clearly leading the pack, with about a quarter of all global shipments. Apple is the second largest vendor of smartphones worldwide. In 2015, Apple sold more than 230 million iPhones worldwide, the highest figure to date. Other prominent smartphone vendors include Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi. When it comes to smartphone operating systems, Android took over as a clear market leader as of the fourth quarter of 2010, and has only further increased its lead since. As of the third quarter of 2015, Android had 85 percent of the market share. Apple’s operating system iOS is its main competitor, accounting for about 15 percent of the share.

This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.

Photo: Wikimedia/cc, TechGizmo