Australian smartphone sales continue to grow along with 5G phones thanks to iPhone 12 sales

Just when we thought that most of us already had a smartphone it seems that even more are either getting them finally or replacing them earlier. Telsyte, Australia’s leading emerging technology analyst firm, conducted an online survey in July of this year, comparing it with a study from December last year and found that smartphone sales continued to grow compared with the same time last year.

In the first half of 2021 Australia smartphone sales amounted to four million handsets, 4% more than the 3.8 million sold in the first half of last year. Of those sold strong iPhone 12 sales accounted for most of the increase in the 5G handsets sold and as 5G chipsets begin to appear in more and more mid-range smartphones you would expect that number to begin to grow even more. iPhone 12 sales were also the main contributor to an increase in the average price paid for a smartphone with it now reaching $780, up 12% year-on-year.

In total more than a million 5G iPhone 12 models were sold in the first half of 2021 but Android still ruled the roost with 54% of the market share. The top three brands were once again Apple, Samsung and OPPO but the increase in sales all around resulted in an increase in sales for Google, Motorola, realme and Vivo smartphones.

Due to a global chip shortage getting worse instead of better, smartphone sales are expected to drop compared to the same time last year in the second half of 2021.

“Demand for tech products including smartphones, has been above trend since the start of the pandemic and is likely to slow” says Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi.

Foldables are on everyone’s mind it seems with 17% of consumers looking to purchase a smartphone were interested in purchasing a foldable smartphone. The prices have dropped for this in recent times and with this further decrease the sales are expected to grow more in the future.

Other tidbits from the survey were that less smart wrist wearables were sold (1%) during the first half of 2021 compared to last year, although the figure was still high at 1.1 million. More and more of us are opting for a smart watch over a fitness wearable with their sales increasing 4% on last year making up 69% of total wrist wearable sales.

It is interesting that we are continuing to see sales of smartphones and other tech grow with many of us apparently replacing older devices more often to account for the continued increase in sales given you would think the smartphone market would already be fairly saturated. With chip shortages in all industries, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 12 months.