Washington: Smartphone share of the overall mobile phone shipments remains flat at 70 percent from past two quarters, though it has increased year over year.
Executive director at Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston said that for the smartphone share to increase, prices have to come down so more users in parts of the world such as Africa and India can afford them.
Today the cheapest smartphones cost about 35 dollars at wholesale, but prices under 20 dollars are needed. Getting there will take a couple of years, at least.
Mawston added that the component cost, IPR costs and the software costs are too high for smartphones to compete at the very bottom end of the market, so feature phones aren't going away.
Though Samsung was still the top seller, it was the biggest loser, as its market share tumbled from 35 percent to about 25 percent. The company was the only one among the top five to sell fewer smartphones than a year ago, the report said.
