India Will Overtake US to Become World's Second Largest Smartphone Market by 2017

Boston, MA - July 1, 2015 - According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are forecasted to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017. China, India and United States are the big three countries driving smartphone growth worldwide. India will soon overtake the United States to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, selling an impressive 174 million units.

Neil Mawston , Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “We forecast global smartphone sales will grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion in 2017. China, India and United States are the big three countries driving smartphone growth worldwide today and in the future.”

Linda Sui , Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “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. We forecast 118 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2015, increasing strongly to 174 million in 2017. India’s growth is being driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands like Micromax.”

Woody Oh , Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “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.”

Exhibit 1: Global Smartphone Sales Forecast by Country: 2014 to 2017 [1]

Global Smartphone Sales (Millions of Units) 2014 2015 2016 2017
China 405 458 491 505
India 82 118 149 174
United States 148 164 167 169
Others 629 732 778 819
Total 1265 1471 1585 1667
Global Smartphone Sales Growth: Year-over-Year (%) 2014 2015 2016 2017
China ~ 13% 7% 3%
India ~ 43% 26% 17%
United States ~ 11% 2% 1%
Others ~ 16% 6% 5%
Total ~ 16% 8% 5%

Source: Strategy Analytics

The full report, Global Smartphone Sales Forecast by 14 Operating Systems for 88Countries , is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/nat5aa7.

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