LONDON, June 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest Omdia
Smartphone Model Market Tracker, the low-end price segment
experienced the fastest growth among all smartphone categories.
Phones priced under $150 grew by 30
million year-on-year, from 90 million in 1Q23 to 120 million in
1Q24, marking a 33% growth. Notably, the ultra-low-cost phones
priced at $90 or less, demonstrated
an impressive 87% year-on-year growth rising from 18 million in
1Q23 to 34 million in 1Q24.
A significant factor driving this growth is the trend among
mid-end phone buyers: to either upgrade their new phone to
higher-end models or downgrade to more affordable low-end phones.
According to Omdia's consumer survey, the smartphone replacement
cycle in emerging markets is shorter compared to developed
countries. "This is due to the poor performance and shorter
security and OS support period of cheap smartphones," explained
Aaron West, Senior Analyst in
Omdia's Smartphone group. The expanding emerging markets are also
steadily increasing the demand for low-end smartphones, as OEMs
launch new low-priced models in countries such as India.
The demand for mid-end phones, priced between $151 and $600,
experienced a significant decline in early 2023 and has not yet
recovered. In 1Q24, these phones accounted for 107 million
shipments, down 2 million from 109 million in 1Q23. As illustrated
in Figure 1, this long-term trend shows a negative year-on-year
(YoY) change in the mid-end segment in recent years, while the
low-end segment has seen positive growth since 1Q23 and the
high-end segment since 3Q23.
The high-end segment, including phones priced above $600, has also experienced growth YoY. In 1Q24,
this segment saw an increase of 3-million-unit compared to 1Q23,
rising from 70 million to 73 million. This growth is evident with
the new Samsung Galaxy S24 series, which totaled 14.3 million
shipments in 1Q24, following its launch on 24 January 2024. This is an improvement over last
year's S23 series, which shipped 11.8 million units in 1Q23.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra saw a 30% increase in shipments
compared to the S23 Ultra in 1Q23. This growth is attributed to the
rising demand for premium phones growing, particularly
top-of-the-range models. A prominent example of this is the iPhone
15 Pro Max, which emerged as the most popular phone of 1Q24, with
11.5 million shipments. This trend indicates that more consumers
are opting for the Pro or Ultra versions of new releases over the
baseline iPhone 15 and Samsung Galaxy S24 phone models.
All this points to an increasingly divided smartphone market
between low-end consumers, primarily in emerging markets and
premium smartphone consumers in developed markets.
ABOUT OMDIA
Omdia, part of Informa Tech, is a technology research and
advisory group. Our deep knowledge of tech markets combined with
our actionable insights empower organizations to make smart growth
decisions.
Fasiha Khan
Fasiha.khan@omdia.com
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/omdia-reports-booming-demand-for-low-end-smartphones-priced-under-150-302174166.html
SOURCE Omdia