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.
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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.
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