According to latest research from Strategy Analytics, India will soon overtake the United States to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017. Strategy Analytics forecasts 118 million smartphones to be sold in India in 2015, increasing rapidly to 174 million in 2017, driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands like Micromax.
The research firm forecasts the global smartphone sales to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017 with China, India and United States being the three major countries driving the growth.
Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics
We forecast 458 million smartphones will be sold in China in 2015, rising steadily to 505 million in 2017. China has been the engine of global smartphone growth in recent years, but China is now maturing and slowing. India is fast becoming the next major growth wave.
Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics
We forecast 164 million smartphones will be sold in the United States in 2015, climbing marginally to 169 million in 2017. India will sell 174 million units and overtake the maturing US market to become the world’s second largest smartphone country by volume in 2017. No serious global hardware or software player can afford to ignore the huge Indian smartphone market today.
