China's smartphone growth slows, India will become a big market

The global smartphone market is still growing steadily, but different markets have different drivers, BusinessInsider's research department, Biintelligence, reported today.

For a large population of emerging mobile markets, mainly China and India, they will continue to play a vital role in the global smartphone market trend.

Android still dominates in China, thanks largely to the rise of local smartphone makers such as Lenovo, Huawei and Millet. But with the iphone 6 and 6Plus listed, Apple's share of the smartphone market in China began to rise in the fourth quarter of last year.

In India, the smartphone business has exploded, and competition among manufacturers has risen sharply. The world's leading brands are losing share in the Indian market and are increasingly being eroded by local manufacturers.

The following is a summary of the report:

1. In the fourth quarter of last year, the iphone 6 was selling globally, but that did not seem to interest American consumers. In the US, Apple's smartphone share has slipped by 0.1%.

2. Android's market share in Europe's major 5 countries continued to rise last year. But in the fourth quarter, Apple regained some of its share by IPhone6, reaching 24% (fourth-quarter sales share).

3. Windows phone rebounded strongly in the European market and is now poised to take a third deal.

4. The UK is Apple's strongest market in Europe. In the fourth quarter of last year, iOS's share of smartphone sales in the UK reached 42% in 2013, thanks to the iphone 6, which was 30%.

5. As the world's largest smartphone market, China's smartphone shipments last year were about 460 million, accounting for 35% of global market share. We expect that in the next 5 years (up to 2020), China's smartphone shipments will rise by an average of 8% per cent a year, below global shipments.

6. From the point of view of the smartphone manufacturer, its market share is very fragmented and no firm has a global share of more than 15%.

7. India will be the next major growth market in the smartphone market, and competition among vendors will be unusually fierce. Last year India's global smartphone market share was 7%, and 2020 is expected to reach 15%.