Global smartphone shipments are expected to grow 7.2% on year to 1.42 billion in 2016 and another 7% to 1.52 billion units in 2017, according to the latest estimate by Digitimes Research. Apple will be the sole non-Asia brand among the top-20 smartphone brands in 2017, while all the remaining 19 vendors will come from Asia, including 11 from China, the report says.
Samsung will continue to lead as the number one vendor, and Apple will rank second and manage to narrow its annual shipment gap with Samsung to within a range of 80 million units, according to Digitimes Research. Apple is expected to see its shipments grow 12% in 2017, buoyed by the release of the next generation iPhone devices (the “iPhone 8,” shown in fanciful mock-ups) in the second half of the year, the report adds.
