According to a recent report by market analyst, Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone shipments is expected to reach to 5 million units in 2019. Early 5G smartphone models will be expensive and available in limited volumes. According to the report, Samsung, LG and Huawei will be the early 5G smartphone leaders this year, followed by Apple next year.
Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics expects less than 1 percent of all smartphones shipped worldwide to be 5G-enabled this year. According to him, global 5G smartphone shipments will be low this year , due to expensive device pricing, component bottlenecks, and restricted availability of active 5G networks. Ville Petteri-Ukonaho, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, believes Samsung will be the early 5G smartphone leader in the first half of 2019, due to initial launches across South Korea and the United States. The report predicts LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola and others will follow later in the year, followed by Apple who will release their 5G enabled iPhone in the second half of 2020. It looks like the iPhone will be at least a year behind Samsung in the 5G smartphone race and therefore Apple must be careful not to fall too far behind.
According to Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, the short-term outlook for 5G smartphones is weak, but the long-term opportunity remains huge. They expect 1 billion 5G smartphones to ship worldwide per year by 2025. The introduction of 5G networks, by carriers like Verizon or China Mobile, opens up high-speed, ultra-low-latency services such as 8K video, streaming games, and augmented reality for business. The next big question for the mobile industry is how many extra consumers are really willing to pay, if anything, for those emerging 5G smartphones and services.
Click here to learn more about the report, 5G Smartphones: From Zero to a Billion.
Click the link to learn about the air-interface technologies that will power phones through 2024 across 88 countries - Global Handset Sales Forecast by 88 Countries and 19 Technologies: 2003 to 2024.
