This section categorises different device types such as smartphones, tablets, phablets and smart watches, and focuses on the latest trends of these popular devices. You can also find more information regarding the world’s most popular vendors.
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1. Smartphone Shipments
In Q1 2015, vendors shipped 334.4 million smartphones worldwide. This figure surpasses the number of units sold in Q1 of 2014, showing a 16% increase from 288.3 million shipments. However, this is a decrease of 11.4% from Q4 2014, which had total shipments of 377.6m units.
Overall shipments in 2014 came to 1.3 billion, and are expected to increase to approximately 1.45 billion in 2015. This trend is expected to continue into the near future, with forecasts for 2019 reaching nearly 2 billion.
This chart shows the growth of smartphone shipments in previous years, and includes shipment predictions up to the year 2019:
2. Top Smartphones
Here are the top smartphones according to DeviceAtlas for Q1 2015. It is based on the amount of mobile web traffic from each phone. We can see that the iPhone 5 is a strong leader in every country surveyed. The Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 6 vary in popularity across countries and remain shoulder-to-shoulder in popularity.
Source: DeviceAtlas
3. Top Smartphone Vendors
Samsung remains in the lead in Q1 2015 with 24.6% market share, with Apple in second place with 18.3%. However, this is a notable decrease of 6.1% for Samsung and an increase of 3.1% for Apple, with 2014 Q1 figures being 30.7% and 15.2% respectively.
Vendor market share Q1 2015:
Vendor market share Q1 2014:
Source: IDC
4. Tablet Shipments slowing
According to Statista, Q1 2015 tablet shipments were 76.1 million which is lower than previous predictions. Overall, growth is predicted to be slow throughout 2015, and is expected to reach 233 million overall. Only a marginal increase from 2014, in which tablet shipments amounted to 216. As the following graph displays that growth is predicted to speed up between 2015 and 2016.
5. Phablet Shipments growing
The popularity of Phablets (phones with a 5.5 inch screen or more) has rapidly increased following the release of the iPhone 6 Plus. Phablets accounted for 21% of all smartphone sales for Q1 2015. This is a striking increase from Q1 2014, in which phablets accounted for only 6% of smartphone sales.
Source: PhoneArena
6. Samsung Galaxy Note vs iPhone 6 Plus
Apple and Samsung are in fierce competition for a share in the phablet market. DeviceAtlas statistics revealed that Samsung Galaxy Note is most popular in Spain, Italy, Germany and South Korea. The iPhone 6 Plus beat the Samsung Note for Q1 2015, reaching sales of 3 million in the US alone.
Here we can see the popularity of both smartphones categorised by country:
Source: DeviceAtlas
7. Wearable Technology gaining traction
Wearable technology has shown a consistent increase in popularity, which is expected to continue in the coming years. IDC predicts that wearables will climb to nearly 112 million in 2018. 11.4 million wearable technology devices were shipped in the first quarter of 2015. This is a drastic increase from Q1 2014 figures of 3.8 million.
A report by CCS Insight predicted that Apple watch sales will amount to 20 million worldwide in 2015. It is also predicted that the Apple Watch will account for 62% of smartwatch sales in 2015.
Sources: Wareable, BusinessWire, ComputerWorld, CCSinsight
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