More Aussies to pick up Windows Phones, Droid, iOS to slump.
That, according to analyst Canalys, who today supplied Channel News with predictions about the Aussie smartphone market, makes for interesting reading:
Apple phone will slump 5%, but still account for one in three phones, or 34%, by 2017.
Meanwhile leader Android, the operating system Samsung, HTC and LG found success on, too will slump 10% to 44%.
But the big surprise is almost one in five of us will own a Microsoft-operated smartphone – jumping from just 3% now to over 17% marketshare by 2017.
Nokia, HTC and Samsung already sell devices on the fledgling Windows 8 Phone platform released last year, with many more soon to follow.
“We expect quite a bit of competition from other operating systems, especially Microsoft’s Windows Phone,”
Jessica Kwee, a Canalys analyst based in Singapore, told Channel News.
OS vendor 2012 2017
Apple 39.0% 34.7%
BlackBerry 1.9% 2.8%
Microsoft 3.7% 17.2%
Nokia 1.4% 0.0%
OHA (Android) 53.7% 44.4%
Others 0.4% 0.8%
Total 8.8 million 11.7m
In total, 11.7 million smartphones are set to be shipped in 2017 – a rise of 3 million compared to 2012.
Trend-wise, the Aussie predictions are somewhat similar to Canalys global forecasts released yesterday, indicating Google Android will have global domination of the mobile market, accounting for 2 out of 3 phones sold.
“Apple has a much larger market share in Australia, given its strong brand, and Apple’s strong retail channels as well,” Jessica Kwee, a Canalys analyst based in Singapore, told CN.
Since the Aussie smartphone market is mature (almost 50% own a smartphone) volume growth will be “relatively modest”.
