Global smartphone sales to decline 2.5% in 2019: Gartner

London: Smartphone sales worldwide would decline by 2.5 per cent in 2019, which would be the worst decline ever, a new report by Gartner Inc. said on Thursday.

Global shipments of devices – PCs, tablets and mobile phones – will total 2.2 billion units in 2019, a decline of 3.3 per cent year-over-year (YoY). The mobile phone market is set to record the worst performance of these device types, declining by 3.8 per cent. “The current mobile phone market of 1.7 billion shipments is around 10 per cent below the 1.9 billion shipments reached in 2015,” Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement. “If mobile phones don’t provide significant new utility, efficiency or experiences, users won‘t upgrade them, and will consequently increase these devices’ life spans.” The trend for lengthening mobile phone life span began in 2018 and will continue through 2019.

The market research firm predicts that high-end phone life span would increase from 2.6 years to nearly 2.9 years through 2023.

Earlier this year, mobile operators launched 5G services in parts of US, South Korea, Switzerland, Finland and the UK, but it will take time for carriers to expand 5G coverage beyond major cities.

By 2020, seven per cent of global communications service providers will have a commercially viable wireless 5G service. This will mark significant progress from 5G proofs of concept and commercial network construction work in 2018. (IANS)

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