Worldwide smartphone sales are expected to slow down in 2016, and will no more grow in double digits, research firm Garner said in a statement. But this isn’t the case in India: Gartner estimates that 139 million smartphones will be sold in India in the year 2016, growing 29.5 % y-o-y. Last year alone (FY15), Indian smartphone shipments grew by a significant 28.8% to 103.6 million units, positioning India as one of the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia Pacific, IDC said in a report. Gartner added that worldwide smartphone sales are expected to grow by just 7% in 2016 to reach 1.5 billion units. This is down from the 14.4% growth reported in 2015. Why smartphone sales are dipping globally, but not in India According to Gartner, the global dip in smartphone sales is mainly because most individual smartphone markets have reached almost 90% penetration. In the mature markets of North America, Western Europe, Japan and Asia/Pacific, smartphone sales are dipping, and in these regions users are not replacing or upgrading their devices as often in previous years, added Gartner. "In the mature markets, premium phone users are extending life cycles to 2.5 years, which is not going to change drastically over the next five years…most users are happy to hold onto their phone for two years or longer than before. They do so especially as the technology updates have become incremental rather than exponential," says Gartner. And since these markets are saturated, smartphone makers are increasingly targeting India and Chinese…
