Blackberry came and somewhat chased Nokia and Java phones out of the market at a point. On came the Android smartphones, Blackberry began to stutter and finally fizzled out of the market. Times do change and the Android OS had to have the monopoly at a point, but whence came Apple with the iPhone series, that proved to be the denominator for competition in the smartphone market.
This goes on to show that players in the Smartphone market have shot up, with some disappearing, some managing to stay for prominence, others reinventing themselves to meet up with the 21st-century decade shift.
It appears the major competition between smart phones has now narrowed to the iOS of Apple and the Android OS with the former going on an alarming ascendancy and this is projected to continue in the coming year 2022.
According to a new Juniper Research report, iPhone sales would rake in over $200b by 2022, that is having 40 percent of the projected Smartphone market and that is massive!
As at 2020, iPhone had less than 20 percent of devices sold last year and 2 years, it would skyrocket to 40 percent. That is sporadic enough!
The research titled: Smartphone Market: Device Innovation, Regional Analysis & Market Share Forecasts 2021-2026 revealed that Apple’s creation of a strong hardware and software ecosystem, had given it a leverage to convince users to purchase its more expensive Smartphone models. The report noted that though the purchase cycles of Smartphone’s are lengthening, Apple has been able to penetrate the market effectively.
“As a result, Apple’s average selling price will rise in the coming years, while Android devices will decline, unless they can leverage new technologies like 5G or bring new design features, such as foldable phones, into the market,” the report said.
The report authors are of the opinion that the Android OS may struggle to compete with iPhone in the future in new Smartphone features.
The authors further opined that Android that primarily focuses on a particular segment of having high-end audio and camera technology advancement in the vast Smartphone market will not readily appeal generally to the audience who are also going to be awed by other premium features.
“Feature diversification alone is not enough for lasting success in the crowded Smartphone market,’ remarked research co-author Nick Hunt. “Apple and Samsung have succeeded in fostering brand loyalty, which smaller vendors have struggled with, despite many introducing new capabilities. These players need to pair strong features with strong branding to have sustained success.”, the report authors posited.
According to Juniper Research, the United States trade ban, which majorly caused a decline in the fortunes of Huawei is not enough to bring older defunct brands back to the limelight but has the chance to allow the growth of other Chinese brands.
“We expect BBK, the manufacturer of Oppo, Vivo, Realme, iQOO, and OnePlus Smartphone’s, will have over 200 million Smartphone’s shipped in 2022; making it the third largest player that year,” the authors added.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
