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Tag: International Data Corporation

  • Global smartphone shipments increase in first quarter amidst trade concerns

    Global smartphone shipments increase in first quarter amidst trade concerns

    MUMBAI: According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, global smartphone1 shipments experienced a 1.5 per cent year-over-year increase in the first quarter of 2025, reaching 304.9 million units. This performance aligned with IDC forecasts, attributed to manufacturers increasing production in anticipation of potential US tariffs on imports from China.

    IDC vice-president Francisco Jeronimo noted that geopolitical uncertainty and the threat of US tariff hikes on Chinese goods led vendors to accelerate production and pull forward significant shipment volumes, particularly into the US market, during the first quarter. This supply-side action resulted in shipment figures exceeding levels expected based on underlying consumer demand.

    IDC group vice president  Ryan Reith highlighted that while the US government’s recent pause on smartphone import tariffs from China provides temporary relief, the continued reliance on China’s supply chain and ongoing tariff volatility create challenges for future planning and decision-making for many companies. He suggested that US smartphone brands should leverage the tariff exemption to maximize building and shipping. Additionally, he cautioned that economic uncertainty could potentially dampen consumer demand in the coming months.

    The US smartphone market saw growth of over five per cent in the first quarter, despite the impact of tariffs and trade tensions on disposable income. IDC research director Anthony Scarsella attributed this growth to increased consumer interest in new models from leading manufacturers and a sense of urgency to purchase before potential price increases. He also suggested that the 90-day tariff pause could further boost sales in the second quarter.

    marketshare of phones

    Globally, the first quarter saw growth among major smartphone vendors, particularly Chinese companies in their domestic market, supported by government subsidies extended to smartphones in January 2025. This subsidy program aims to stimulate consumption for products priced below yuan 6,000 ($820).

    Among the top vendors:
    * Samsung regained market leadership, driven by the continued success of its Galaxy S25 premium devices and the mid-range Galaxy A series, including the latest Galaxy A36 and A56 featuring more affordable AI capabilities.

    * Apple achieved its highest first-quarter shipments ever, attributed to stockpiling to mitigate potential US ariffs and to address potential supply chain disruptions in other regions. However, its performance in China declined as its Pro models were not included in the Chinese government subsidy program.

    * Xiaomi’s performance was primarily driven by growth in China due to the government subsidies, positively impacting sales of its mid-range products.

    * Oppo regained the fourth position despite a decline in shipments due to weaker performance in international markets, which was not fully offset by growth in China.

    * Vivo experienced substantial year-on-year growth of 6.3 per cent, supported by subsidies in China and growth in international markets, with strong performance in low-end devices and the V series.

    In conclusion, while the global smartphone market showed positive shipment growth in the first quarter of 2025, the ongoing US-China trade war and tariff volatility continue to present significant concerns for the remainder of the year.

  • Boult tunes into success with record growth in India’s wearables market

    Boult tunes into success with record growth in India’s wearables market

    MUMBAI: Boult is turning up the volume in India’s wearables market, emerging as the fastest-growing brand in the True Wireless Stereo (TWS) segment. According to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) report, Boult recorded an impressive 52 per cent growth in shipments, even as the overall wearables market faced an 11.3% year-on-year (YoY) decline. The brand’s market share rose from 9.7 per cent in 2023 to 12.9 per cent in 2024, solidifying its position as India’s leading homegrown TWS brand.

    Despite a tough landscape where smartwatch shipments plunged by 34.4 per cent and earwear grew only 3.8 per cent YoY, Boult defied the trend with double-digit growth. The brand’s total market share increased from 6.9 per cent (CY23) to 8.6 per cent (CY24), while its TWS market share jumped from 10.7 per cent to 13.0 per cent, reflecting a 32.8 per cent YoY growth.

    Boult founder Varun Gupta remarked, “Our success in the TWS and wearables segment is a result of our unwavering focus on innovation, design, and quality. We are committed to offering top-tier technology at accessible price points while continuing to strengthen our presence in India’s manufacturing ecosystem.”

    Boult’s financial performance also hit high notes, with Rs 600 crore in revenue for 2024-25 and projections to surpass Rs 800 crore in the current fiscal year. Its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has crossed Rs 1,000 crore, reinforcing its strong consumer demand and market influence. Strengthening its premium positioning, the Boult x Mustang collaboration has fuelled a 10 per cent market share rise in the Rs 1,500 – Rs 2,000 TWS segment.

  • Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

    Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

    NEW DELHI: Non-metro Indian cities, mainly those in Tier 2 and 3 (population between 20,000-100,000), have fuelled growth in smartphone sales during the festive season between August and October, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), which said total sales in such cities grew 23.3 per cent over the previous month as per Monthly City Level Smartphone tracker.

    In another forecast, IDC said global consumer spending on digital devices, services and content will reach $3.4 trillion in 2020, rising 4.7 per cent annually from 2015. The global forecast is from a newly launched research program, Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services, which provides a holistic view of consumer spending across all goods and services.

    Meanwhile, Retail Asia, quoting IDC data relating to Indian smartphone sales, said the growth was largely due to vendors focusing on new affordable launches, higher spending on marketing and innovative payment options. IDC India senior market analyst Upasana Joshi said the key four months from July to October 2016 made up more than 40 per cent of annual smartphone sales. The festive season in India started in August with Independence Day and ran until Diwali in October.

    “Multiple sales by all major e-commerce players in October with their high-decibel marketing, attractive payment options, and exchange offers also helped in growing the market. The top 8 to 10 cities of India constitute the major portion of online sales, leaving a yawning gap between these markets and the still largely untapped smaller towns,” Joshi was quoted as having said.

    Joshi, who disclosed that China-based players contributed significantly to the growth at the offline retail counters while continuing to dominate the online channel, said, “These vendors collectively accounted for more than 40 per cent market share in the top 30 cities during Diwali month, primarily driven by 4G enabled handsets. Oppo and Vivo continue to shake the traditional line up of Indian vendors with their superior build quality, massive marketing investments in the offline channel.”

    Global Digital Spending on Content To Rise By 2020

    Coming to market research firm’s latest data on global digital spending by consumers, IDC said the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 per cent in 2015 to only 22 per cent by 2020, but consumer spending on digital content will rise at a 12.6 per cent annual clip, according to the CSP, a twice-annual pivot table. Digital services, however, will maintain its 61 per cent share of consumer digital spending by growing 4.9 per cent annually.

    According to IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the IT, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, while total consumer digital spending is going up, the nature of spend is changing. For example, just as consumers shift spending towards digital content, consumers worldwide are moving digital spending towards online media and away from entertainment devices.

    Consumer spending on online media will grow 12.6 per cent from 2015 to 2020, while spending on digital communications devices and services will grow at a mere 1.6 per cent annual rate as consumer spending on voice services, both fixed and mobile, declines in absolute terms from 2015 to 2020.

    “Clearly the value of the devices is derived primarily as conduits for the content and services that they transport and the applications that they enable,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services program.

    Much of the change in consumer spending categories is driven by regions outside of the United States, where the shift among spending categories continues but is largely complete and the share of spending by solution type is largely stable, IDC said, adding that in developing countries, however, consumer spending on digital content and services vs. devices, is still gaining, while online media spending also increases in wallet share.

  • Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

    Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

    NEW DELHI: Non-metro Indian cities, mainly those in Tier 2 and 3 (population between 20,000-100,000), have fuelled growth in smartphone sales during the festive season between August and October, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), which said total sales in such cities grew 23.3 per cent over the previous month as per Monthly City Level Smartphone tracker.

    In another forecast, IDC said global consumer spending on digital devices, services and content will reach $3.4 trillion in 2020, rising 4.7 per cent annually from 2015. The global forecast is from a newly launched research program, Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services, which provides a holistic view of consumer spending across all goods and services.

    Meanwhile, Retail Asia, quoting IDC data relating to Indian smartphone sales, said the growth was largely due to vendors focusing on new affordable launches, higher spending on marketing and innovative payment options. IDC India senior market analyst Upasana Joshi said the key four months from July to October 2016 made up more than 40 per cent of annual smartphone sales. The festive season in India started in August with Independence Day and ran until Diwali in October.

    “Multiple sales by all major e-commerce players in October with their high-decibel marketing, attractive payment options, and exchange offers also helped in growing the market. The top 8 to 10 cities of India constitute the major portion of online sales, leaving a yawning gap between these markets and the still largely untapped smaller towns,” Joshi was quoted as having said.

    Joshi, who disclosed that China-based players contributed significantly to the growth at the offline retail counters while continuing to dominate the online channel, said, “These vendors collectively accounted for more than 40 per cent market share in the top 30 cities during Diwali month, primarily driven by 4G enabled handsets. Oppo and Vivo continue to shake the traditional line up of Indian vendors with their superior build quality, massive marketing investments in the offline channel.”

    Global Digital Spending on Content To Rise By 2020

    Coming to market research firm’s latest data on global digital spending by consumers, IDC said the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 per cent in 2015 to only 22 per cent by 2020, but consumer spending on digital content will rise at a 12.6 per cent annual clip, according to the CSP, a twice-annual pivot table. Digital services, however, will maintain its 61 per cent share of consumer digital spending by growing 4.9 per cent annually.

    According to IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the IT, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, while total consumer digital spending is going up, the nature of spend is changing. For example, just as consumers shift spending towards digital content, consumers worldwide are moving digital spending towards online media and away from entertainment devices.

    Consumer spending on online media will grow 12.6 per cent from 2015 to 2020, while spending on digital communications devices and services will grow at a mere 1.6 per cent annual rate as consumer spending on voice services, both fixed and mobile, declines in absolute terms from 2015 to 2020.

    “Clearly the value of the devices is derived primarily as conduits for the content and services that they transport and the applications that they enable,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services program.

    Much of the change in consumer spending categories is driven by regions outside of the United States, where the shift among spending categories continues but is largely complete and the share of spending by solution type is largely stable, IDC said, adding that in developing countries, however, consumer spending on digital content and services vs. devices, is still gaining, while online media spending also increases in wallet share.

  • India Tablet shipments sluggish in Q1 2016: International Data Corporation

    India Tablet shipments sluggish in Q1 2016: International Data Corporation

    New Delhi: According to International Data Corporation (IDC),Indian tablet market in CY Q12016 remained flat over previous quarter with total shipments of 0.86 million units (including slate and detachable form factors). However, shipments grew by a marginal 1.3 percent over the same period last year. Declining consumer interest in the slate tablet form factor and rapid growth of large screen smartphones (phablets) causing the tablet market to slow down.

    Detachables traction continued in Q1 2016 with triple digit year-over-year growth, although it was on low base as uptake in this form factor began mainly from Q2 2016.“Windows based detachables continue to account over 70 percent share, however Apple’s recent foray into this segment has garnered them to clock decent numbers given the premium price of their products. Although, continued long-term success may prove challenging as it plays inhigher entry price pointand iOS is yet to prove its enterprise-readiness unlike Microsoft”says,Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

    Micromax continued to leaddetachables category accounting for more than one-third oftotal shipments in Q1 2016.“Smartphone vendors constitute more than half of detachables. Their strong understanding of mobile ecosystem and the volume achieved from their smartphone product lines would allow them to aggressively compete in this new computing segment”, adds Karthik.

    Datawind: Datawind withstood its top position with 27.6 percentage share as shipment grew at a healthy 33.5 percent over previous quarter. Vendor’s shipments doubled year-on-year showing a sharp trajectory in last one year. Vendor’s television channel partners played pivotal role in this quarter’s growth through their aggressive marketing and selling during mid-quarter.

    Samsung: Samsung sustained its 2nd place with vendor share of 15.2 percentage in Q1 2016. Shipments dipped marginally by 3.7 percent over previous quarter but grew 5.1 percent over Q1 2015. Entry level Galaxy Tab models continue to be volume runners for Samsung in Slate tablets. However, vendor began to face stiff competition in premium detachable segment from Apple and Microsoft in Q1 2016. 

    Lenovo: Lenovo being the only PC vendor in Top 5 moved up to 3rd position in Q1 2016 with a market share of 13.6 percentage. Q1 2016 shipment grew at a healthy 30.5 percent over the same period last year while dipped marginallyover Q4 2015. While commercial segment continued to drive volumes for the vendor, its new product Phab saw some healthy shipments in consumer segment.

    Micromax: Micromax slipped to 4th place as shipments dip further in Q1 2016 by 27 percentover previous quarter to hold themarket share of 11.3 percentage. However, vendor managed to post 16.2 percent growth over the same period last year owing to healthy contribution from its Laptab detachable. 

    iBall: iBall manages to be in Top 5 with vendor share of 8.7 percentage in Q1 2016. iBall shipments dip approximately by 12 percentage both sequentially and year-on-year. While the vendor was one of the first few who introduced low cost detachables in the Indian market, it has somewhere lost out opportunity to capitalizethe growth in detachable category.
    IDC India Forecast:

    Tablet market in CY 2016 is expected to be stagnant in India but is likely to witnesschanging trends like healthy growth in commercial segment, migration to higher screen slate tablets and increase in adoption of 4G based tablets.

    “Detachables are expected to ramp upswiftly with majority traction coming from affordable windows based devices. Also, with Apple launching iPad pro 9.7, iOS is likely to gain share in detachables category this year”, says Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India.

     

  • India Tablet shipments sluggish in Q1 2016: International Data Corporation

    India Tablet shipments sluggish in Q1 2016: International Data Corporation

    New Delhi: According to International Data Corporation (IDC),Indian tablet market in CY Q12016 remained flat over previous quarter with total shipments of 0.86 million units (including slate and detachable form factors). However, shipments grew by a marginal 1.3 percent over the same period last year. Declining consumer interest in the slate tablet form factor and rapid growth of large screen smartphones (phablets) causing the tablet market to slow down.

    Detachables traction continued in Q1 2016 with triple digit year-over-year growth, although it was on low base as uptake in this form factor began mainly from Q2 2016.“Windows based detachables continue to account over 70 percent share, however Apple’s recent foray into this segment has garnered them to clock decent numbers given the premium price of their products. Although, continued long-term success may prove challenging as it plays inhigher entry price pointand iOS is yet to prove its enterprise-readiness unlike Microsoft”says,Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

    Micromax continued to leaddetachables category accounting for more than one-third oftotal shipments in Q1 2016.“Smartphone vendors constitute more than half of detachables. Their strong understanding of mobile ecosystem and the volume achieved from their smartphone product lines would allow them to aggressively compete in this new computing segment”, adds Karthik.

    Datawind: Datawind withstood its top position with 27.6 percentage share as shipment grew at a healthy 33.5 percent over previous quarter. Vendor’s shipments doubled year-on-year showing a sharp trajectory in last one year. Vendor’s television channel partners played pivotal role in this quarter’s growth through their aggressive marketing and selling during mid-quarter.

    Samsung: Samsung sustained its 2nd place with vendor share of 15.2 percentage in Q1 2016. Shipments dipped marginally by 3.7 percent over previous quarter but grew 5.1 percent over Q1 2015. Entry level Galaxy Tab models continue to be volume runners for Samsung in Slate tablets. However, vendor began to face stiff competition in premium detachable segment from Apple and Microsoft in Q1 2016. 

    Lenovo: Lenovo being the only PC vendor in Top 5 moved up to 3rd position in Q1 2016 with a market share of 13.6 percentage. Q1 2016 shipment grew at a healthy 30.5 percent over the same period last year while dipped marginallyover Q4 2015. While commercial segment continued to drive volumes for the vendor, its new product Phab saw some healthy shipments in consumer segment.

    Micromax: Micromax slipped to 4th place as shipments dip further in Q1 2016 by 27 percentover previous quarter to hold themarket share of 11.3 percentage. However, vendor managed to post 16.2 percent growth over the same period last year owing to healthy contribution from its Laptab detachable. 

    iBall: iBall manages to be in Top 5 with vendor share of 8.7 percentage in Q1 2016. iBall shipments dip approximately by 12 percentage both sequentially and year-on-year. While the vendor was one of the first few who introduced low cost detachables in the Indian market, it has somewhere lost out opportunity to capitalizethe growth in detachable category.
    IDC India Forecast:

    Tablet market in CY 2016 is expected to be stagnant in India but is likely to witnesschanging trends like healthy growth in commercial segment, migration to higher screen slate tablets and increase in adoption of 4G based tablets.

    “Detachables are expected to ramp upswiftly with majority traction coming from affordable windows based devices. Also, with Apple launching iPad pro 9.7, iOS is likely to gain share in detachables category this year”, says Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India.

     

  • Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    MUMBAI: When HUL’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign came back home with a Gold Lion in the mobile category from Cannes this year, it took the whole industry by surprise.

     

    The campaign rolled out by the FMCG giant was an effort to reach out to the media dark areas. ‘The Kan Khajura Station’ a 15 minute free, on-demand, entertainment channel was a service where people could give a missed call and then get entertained for free.

     

    The brand created a new media through a rudimentary mobile phone that brought people out of media darkness and connected them with the world. According to the brand, the activity was done at a cost of Rs 6 per person. This campaign was executed in Bihar and Jharkhand.

     

    This is not the first time that the country’s largest consumer good company had executed a campaign for people with feature phones in the country. It can be recalled, couple of years back the company’s detergent brand Active Wheel had also used missed call as an advertising inventory to catch the attention of consumers in UP and Bihar.

     

    Further to this, the company is now collaborating with local grocery shops and is working on making custom-made caller tune as part of a new marketing initiative. This means that when a consumer calls up the shop to place an order he/she will be informed about various promotions and offers on the various brands from the house of HUL. According to economic times, HUL has piloted this initiated in Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    If studies by International Data Corporation (IDC) are to be believed feature phones still hold over 70 per cent of the Indian mobile market. Experts in the space are optimistic that the scenario will change the game. A recent IDC report mentions that India is the fastest-growing market in Asia-Pacific, with a year-on-year smartphone shipment growth of over 186 per cent in 1Q 2014.

     

    Is there still a market for advertising on feature phones in country where smartphones are growing exponentially?

     

    Digital Quotient COO Vinish Kathuria believes there is a lot of scope of exploring this market. According to him, advertising opportunities on feature phones revolve around text and banner ads on WAP sites, IVR based outreach and SMS and missed call strategies which are being used interestingly even today by many big brands.

     

    Out these advertising options, missed call as tool looks to be promising to many other experts. In a recent development, Facebook announced that it has introduced missed call inventory to boost its advertising revenues in India that counts for the second largest user base for it.

     

    This advertising tool will allow mobile phone users to click a button that calls an advertiser, immediately hangs up and then receives a return call. The return call delivers pre-recorded audio messages about everything from sponsored cricket scores to information about shopping discounts, minimizing data charges for the user.

     

    The social networking site has partnered with ZipDial for this. In early tests of the missed call ads by L’Oreal-owned haircare product Garnier Men, the ads led to a 2.5 times year-on-year increase in online sales, according to Facebook.

     

    When asked how different is it to execute an advertising campaign on feature phone than on a smartphone, ZipDial founder and CEO Valerie R Wagoner mentions, “We don’t believe in thinking of it as advertising on feature phones but rather advertising to consumers who have feature phones.”

     

    Wagoner thinks media activations with these set of mobiles can deliver great results.  She is of the opinion that every media whether print, television, outdoor, or even digital ads should have a mobile call-to-action to make it interactive and to drive ongoing engagement with consumers in a targeted and personalised way.

     

    “While a QR Code is relevant to less than 1 per cent of mobile consumers in India, a missed call is the easiest thing that anyone could do from any phone,” adds Wagoner.

     

    She informs that ZipDial is collaborating with Unilever to work on expanding this success globally across emerging markets.

     

    Apart from this the cost is minimalistic. Running a campaign on feature phones might cost a brand anywhere between Rs 3 to 6 lakhs mentions a senior media planner.

     

    The Roadblocks

     

    Having said that, thought there is a huge opportunity in using mobile as a broadcast channel to directly reach consumers, it has to be done very carefully, especially for consumers on feature phones.

     

    “Advertising potential is significantly lower on feature phones because of two main reasons. One is the limited screen size and phone’s processing makes it harder to offer plethora of multi media advertising options. Two, availability of apps and usage of it are significantly lower. So, in-app advertising, one of the biggest mobile advertising categories, is almost non-existent,” says Kathuria.

     

    Brands should never spam users. Wagoner states, “Blasting SMS or voice calls can be extremely intrusive. However, SMS and voice Calls are a very powerful tool when you use them in combination with protecting consumer privacy. For example, standard industry response rates to generic push SMS blasts are around 0.1-0.2 per cent. However, response rates to SMS sent to ZipDial followers are between 9-56 per cent because users give permission and are in control of the content they receive.”

     

    It is extremely necessary to have personalised experience which targets the right message to the right consumer at the right time that will successfully lead to behavioural change, conversions and business impact across this segment.

     

    ”The difference is that there are thousands of companies designing for smartphones (especially companies in the West and developed markets), and there are very few innovative companies designing and building good advertising technology for emerging markets,” concludes Wagoner.

     

  • Mobile services market revenue in India to reach $37 billion by 2017

    Mobile services market revenue in India to reach $37 billion by 2017

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says India has nearly 850 million mobile subscribers, the total mobile services market revenue in India is $29.8 billion and will reach $37 billion by 2017.

     

    According to International Data Corporation (IDC), this will mean a compounded annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent.

     

    Mobile broadband market in 2014 will continue to have strong growth in India as compared to other mobile services market.

     

    According to a report on the IDC website, “Mobile services market in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region is considered as a very dynamic market compared to other emerging and mature markets. Many mobile operators have been struggling for quite some time to maintain growth in revenue, especially on voice services.”

     

    From 2012 to 2017, IDC projects that the growth rate for voice services revenue in APeJ will slow down and achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5 per cent. However, data connectivity or mobile broadband revenue will grow at a CAGR of 19.3 per cent from 2012 to 2017.

     

    IDC said mobile broadband market size will be $7 billion by 2017 with a CAGR of 32 per cent. The 3G subscribers will hold the highest five-year CAGR of 68 per cent compared to other mobile technology. This is mainly due to more 3G services coverage across the country, especially in the big cities.

     

    Among mobile services, only mobile broadband services show strong growth, meanwhile SMS and MMS are on a decline trend. Voice services tend to have a flat growth rate.

     

    IDC attributes the growth of data revenue in APeJ to three key areas: Smartphones penetration with affordable prices; Rollout of 3G and LTE licenses and mobile user behavior towards ‘Over-The-Top-Players’ (OTTP) services.

     

    “For India, mobile broadband market in 2014 will continue to have strong growth compared to other mobile services market. This service is expected to reach US$7 billion by 2017 with a CAGR of 32 per cent. 3G subs will hold the highest five-year CAGR of 68 per cent compared to other mobile technology. This is mainly due to more 3G services coverage across the country, especially in the big cities. With this trend, operators should focus more on their mobile broadband strategy,” says IDC Asia/Pacific Telecommunication Group senior research manager Ashadi Cahyadi.

     

    According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker 1H2013, the total mobile services market revenue in India will reach US$29.8 billion by 2014 and is expected to reach US$37 billion in 2017 with a CAGR of 5.2 per cent.

  • Smart connected device market up 29% in 2012: IDC

    Smart connected device market up 29% in 2012: IDC

    MUMBAI: Worldwide shipments of smart connected devices grew by 29.1 per cent in 2012, crossing one billion units shipped with a value of $576.9 billion.

    According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Smart Connected Device Tracker, the market expansion was largely driven by 78.4 per cent year-over-year growth in tablet shipments, which surpassed 128 million in 2012.

    Looking specifically at the results for the fourth quarter of 2012, the combined shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones was nearly 378 million and revenues were more than $168 billion.

    In terms of market share, Apple significantly closed the gap with market leader Samsung in the quarter, as the combination of Apple‘s iPhone 5 and iPad Mini brought Apple up to 20.3 per cent unit shipment share versus 21.2 per cent for Samsung. On a revenue basis for the fourth quarter, Apple continued to dominate with 30.7 per cent share versus 20.4 per cent share for Samsung.

    Going forward, IDC expects that tablet shipments will surpass desktop PCs in 2013 and portable PCs in 2014. In 2013, worldwide desktop PC shipments are expected to drop by 4.3 per cent and portable PCs to maintain a flat growth of 0.9 per cent. The tablet market, on the other hand, is expected to reach a new high of 190 million shipment units with year-on-year growth of 48.7 per cent while the smartphone market is expected to grow by 27.2 per cent to 918.5 million units.

    From a regional perspective, the smart connected device volume in emerging markets grew by 41.3 per cent in 2012 with the tablet volume growing by 111.3 per cent and smartphone volume by 69.7 per cent year over- year. Mature markets, on the other hand, grew by 15.6 per cent and saw a huge plunge in the PC market in the year 2012.

    By the end of 2017, IDC predicts that the tablet and smartphone markets will have a huge growth potential in the emerging markets. During this time, tablet unit shipments are expected to increase by a factor of three with a shipment value of $125 billion dollars while smartphone unit shipments are expected to double and reach a shipment value of $462 billion dollars. Portable PCs, on the other hand, will show a moderate single-digit growth while desktop PCs are expected to consistently decline year over year with almost no growth in 2017.

    IDC‘s Worldwide Smart Connected Device Tracker research analyst Megha Saini said, “In emerging markets, consumer spending typically starts with mobile phones and, in many cases, moves to tablets before PCs. The pressure on the PC market is significantly increasing and we can see longer replacement cycles coming into effect very soon and that, too, will put downward pressure on PC sales.”

    Looking forward, IDC predicts the worldwide smart connected device space will continue to surge with shipments surpassing 2.2 billion units and revenues reaching $814.3 billion in 2017. IDC Program VP for clients and Displays Bob O‘Donnell said, “Consumers and business buyers are now starting to see smartphones, tablets, and PCs as a single continuum of connected devices separated primarily by screen size.

    “Each of these devices is primarily used for data applications and different individuals choose different sets of screen sizes in order to fit their unique needs. These kinds of developments are creating exciting new opportunities that will continue to drive the smart connected devices market forward in a positive way.”