Turns out the trend toward much higher priced smartphones may well be having an impact on sales if we’re to believe the latest Telsyte Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study.
Research company Telsyte chatted to over a thousand Aussies about their buying habits and it turns out we’re not fans of the higher priced smartphones and there is a fascination with 5G which could see some people wait for their next phone.
Sales in the second half of 2018 hit around 4.6 million – down 3 per cent on the same time in 2017 as buyers held onto their phones for longer – put off by the average selling price of phones going up by a massive 13 per cent!
Add to that 24% of people holding off until 5G becomes available and you’ve got an interesting year ahead for mobile sales.
Telsyte is forecasting 9 million smartphone sales in 2019, up just 1 per cent, saying “only a handful of Android vendors are expected to release 5G smartphones in 2019”.
Foad Fadaghi from Telsyte says “There is a clear imperative for carriers to bring 5G handsets to market as soon as possible given the lengthening of the replacement cycle”
Forecasts jump dramatically to a 6 per cent growth if Apple release a 5G phone in 2019 – though EFTM believes that to be highly unlikely.
Overall, Apple sold 42% of all smartphones in the second half of 2018, with Samsung, Oppo and Huawei topping the charts for Android sales.
Telsyte also discovered that mobile payments are on the up – nearly half of all mobile payment users are using it regularly (which means more than 75% of the time) to pay for their purchases – this validate’s CommBank’s decision to launch Apple Pay recently and confirms why ANZ launched so early.