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Has the smartphone frenzy hit its peak? Global sales decline for first time
Worldwide smartphone sales have dropped for the first time after years of unbroken growth.
Mobile manufacturers were hit by a 5.6pc decline in the last quarter of 2017 compared to the year before, according to analysts at Gartner.
The drop may be down to a perfect storm of shoppers' changing appetites for expensive phones that last longer, along with a lack of quality budget models on the market.
Tech giants like Apple and Samsung are turning to premium, luxury flagship devices that offer more features at a higher price tag, like the £1,000 iPhone X, Google's £799 Pixel 2 XL and Samsung's £869 Galaxy Note 8. But this could be creating undesirable consequences.
"Two main factors led to the fall in the fourth quarter of 2017," said Gartner's Anshul Gupta. "First, upgrades from feature phones to smartphones have slowed down due to a lack of quality 'ultra-low-cost' smartphones and users preferring to buy quality feature phones.
"Second, replacement smartphone users are choosing quality models and keeping them longer, lengthening the replacement cycle of smartphones. While demand for high quality, 4G connectivity and better camera features remained strong, high expectations and few incremental benefits during replacement weakened smartphone sales."
More than 1.5bn smartphones were sold in the whole of 2017, an increase of 2.7pc from the year before, which could suggest the dip is just a blip rather than a warning sign for the industry.
Samsung sold 74m smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2017, a drop of 2m from a year earlier, but still managed to retain its number one spot against Apple, which sold 73.2m in the same period.
Huawei, coming in third, raised its market share in 2017, continuing to gain on Apple. Chinese brands appeared to increase overall, despite setbacks while trying to crack the US, which has discouraged mobile networks from selling Huawei's phones over concerns the company is closely tied to the Chinese government.
Other research suggested smartphones suffered a small drop two years ago however, this is the first recorded by Gartner, seen as one of the more reliable industry trackers.