IDC: Global smartphone shipments will reach 1.2 billion this year

Tencent Technology Rui February 27 compiled by the U.S. authority of the market research firm IDC issued a statement in Tuesday, said the global smartphone shipments in 2013 after the first breakthrough 1 billion mark, the global smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.2 billion. But the year-on-year increase in global handset shipments is expected to drop sharply this year compared with a 38% increase over the same period last year. IDC also said in a statement that because many consumers in major markets such as North America and Europe already have devices such as Apple's iphone or Samsung Galaxy S5, the company expects the year-on-year growth in global smartphone shipments to drop sharply from 19% this year to 6.2% in 2018. To encourage consumers to replace their mobile phones with the latest models, Apple has been developing large-screen phones with curved screen technology. Large handset makers such as Samsung are also starting to enter the market for other electronic devices, including smart watches. IDC expects Google to continue to dominate the smartphone OS market, but its market share will fall from 78.9% this year to 76% in 2018. Meanwhile, Apple iOS's market share is expected to fall from 14.9% this year to 14.4%, while Microsoft Windows Phone's market share is expected to rise from 3.9% this year to the 7%;blackberry operating system market is expected to be from this year's 1% Fell to a miserable 0.3%.