Skip to main content

Consumers Resist Upgrading Mobile Phones

The worldwide mobile phone market shipped 35 million fewer units than it did during the same period in 2008, and all indications point to that trend continuing throughout 2009.

The mobile phone industry has long been characterized by its seasonal trends, where the first quarter always delivers a sequential decline after a busy holiday season. However, the drop in this first quarter was especially sharp, according to ABI Research practice director Kevin Burden.

"The 255.6 million handsets shipped represented a 20 percent decline from Q4 2008, which was already a down quarter, and a nearly 12 percent decline from Q1 2008."

Shipment reductions are a new reality for the mobile phone market. "The industry and consumers have gone into protection mode," says Burden. "Protecting profitability has led handset manufacturers to produce less and to operators and retail outlets holding smaller inventories."

Consumers are also realizing that many of the features they desire are already in the handset they currently use, and are willing to forego an upgrade until they have more confidence in their own futures.

The Asia/Pacific region, with handset volumes triple that of the next largest region, had been widely expected to feel more than a fair share of pain due its very troubled economic conditions.

However it posted only an 8 percent YoY decline, which was a spot of encouragement. The Latin American market, however, tempered any encouraging news with a reminder of how deeply the recession can cut.

The region had a nearly 28 percent decline in shipments, the largest decline of any region, due in large part to the devaluation of its currencies leading to higher prices of imported mobile phones.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ