Smartphone shipments declined for the first time in 2017
2017 was the first year that smartphone unit shipments didn’t grow, according to venture capitalist Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report. Shipments actually declined by 0.5 percent, as IDC noted in February. In 2016, shipments were lukewarm at 2 percent yearly growth, but this downturn is significant.
Among smartphone shipments, Android and iOS have all but completely pushed out every other mobile operating system. And despite the growing price of today’s top flagship devices, the average selling price of a smartphone has steadily fallen over the years.
As more of the world now owns smartphones, growth has basically stalled. Similarly, internet user growth has only grown 7 percent in 2017, compared to 12 percent in 2016.