back to article Humanity will only buy 47 smartphones per SECOND in 2016

Prognostication-producers Gartner reckon the disappointing start to 2016 will continue for smartphone makers, with the year to end a mere seven per cent ahead of 2015. If it's accurate, that would translate to 1.5 billion units for the year – a little over 47 units per second, up from 44 units per second for 2015 (1.4 billion …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    43 of them will be android of course

    If current market marketshare holds true (and why wouldn't it)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Re: 43 of them will be android of course

      That's because you have to throw the one year old phone in the bin because it hasn't seen an update since it was bought and is now a big fat malware target.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not quite

      According to Gartner, Apple had 15.9% of the worldwide smartphone market in 2015. So out of 47 phones, 40 will be Android, not 43. Maybe 39, if Microsoft & Blackberry together can manage one for the "other" column.

      http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3215217

  2. msknight

    "If it's accurate, that would translate to 1.5 billion units for the year – a little over 47 units per second, up from 44 units per second for 2015 (1.4 billion devices)."

    I know I'm being thick here... but 47 units per second seems to be more sold, than 44 units per second, so I'm not sure where the slowing growth comes in to this.

    I know... I need more coffee... perhaps then it'll make sense to me....

    EDIT ... ah, I get it now. But... err.... what's all the fuss about? In today's market I'd be happy for another 1 unit per second. Hoping for the same growth as last year just seems like another example of corporate greed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The expectation of continued growth is the false-promise of our current economic model. It's impossible. The desire to consume ever more is just going to drive us off a climate change cliff. You won't care too much for a new shiny phone as you watch your children die in the war for water.

      We need to be looking beyond economies that only reward short-term gain for long-term cost. Not only would this have massive environmental benefits, but also social. No more shitty PFI deals for a start!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The reason the smartphone market was growing so quickly was because smartphones have been replacing feature phones. There are still some feature phones sold that Android will replace when they are able to make them cheaper (they're already under $50) But that's not growth that will make anyone any money, not even Google.

      2. TeeCee Gold badge
        Meh

        Nice hat. Is that actual tinfoil or some eco-loony hemp substitute?

  3. tiggity Silver badge

    waiting

    I'm holding off on a new phone (android, not iphone as iphone costly & too little user control/ too much walled garden)

    Not because I want the latest bells & whistles.

    I just want something fairly bog standard in functionality but ....

    Recent android (Marshmallow) - "vanilla" i.e. with no custom crapware added

    I get android security bug fixes in a timely fashion

    And (hence not nexus) - it has SD card so I can keep moving over different selections of music, ebooks & other train journey pass the time content from my main server as cloudiness is no good when no signal!

    Yes I could get a phone with lots of inbuilt storage - but mega cost compared to zero for existing SD card collection!

    Yes I could root - but PITA & warranty wiped out.

    So, my just not really good enough but still works phone stays until I get what I want.

    .. So a long wait for something that should be so easy to provide.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: waiting

      WileyFox?

      Never used one but gets decent reviews.

      1. Bassey

        Re: waiting

        Wilefox uses Cyanogen rather than vanilla android but certainly ticks all the other boxes. An Xperia Z3 compact would do it. And if the Sony launcher isn't close enough to vanilla for you, just stick Google Now launcher over it and be done. I've had the Z1 Compact for 2.5 years and still get regular security updates. No plans to replace it until it dies - although I'm tempted to get a Z3 now before stock runs out just so that I have a replacement ready to roll. Won't get the new Z5 as they've removed several of the features that make the Z1&3 so useful to me (ANT+ and wireless charging being the two biggies)

      2. msknight

        Wileyfox - Just Don't.

        Got the 8 core.

        The camera is nuts. Waiting ages for an update which WF said would be, "next week," - the DAC and amp isn't all that hot, the self-facing camera is limited to 10 mins even though there's shed loads of space on internal memory (I do YouTube vids... and yes, there is an argument that limiting them to 10 minutes helps stop me waffle on, but that's not applicable here...) Somehow I've lost the ability to control ev, and other features... haven't got a clue what's going on.

        I so wanted to Wileyfox to work... just like I so wanted the Jolla to work... but they don't.

        The 8 core was cheap for a reason... but like the OP, there's nothing for me to jump to.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can we get some innovation in the Smartphone arena, please?

    Everything is a 5.5+ MEGA-PHLAB and last time I checked, my hands hadn't changed size.

    Where are the decent spec'd phones with a 5 or smaller screen? Just because I want a small phone does not mean I want a budget phone.

    Small (4.5-5"), Amoled @ 1080, decent battery (thickness doesn't matter), NFC, 3-6GB/32-64GB (or microSD), waterproof, and maybe wireless charging too. I'll pay money for that.

    Shame there's none on the market.

  5. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
    Trollface

    Growth has slowed

    "but growth has slowed so its frowning time"

    This is Capitalist Greed talking , and will be written on western society's tombstone when the revolution comes.

    That statement is all that is wrong with our culture. More .more. more - in fact more isnt enough as evidenced by the statement. Exponential more is whats required -until the planet explodes.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Growth has slowed

      I realise you were attempting to be ironic, but you hit the nail on the head. Although the planet won't explode, well just continue to destroy it until it can no longer sustain our species. The total failure of the Paris talks saw to that.

      But HEY, at least we'll have cool phones.

  6. Mikel

    Let's take a moment to appreciate

    Somewhere near half of all Mankind now has constant control of a personal computer with always-on Internet. And it happened in a few short years. We whizzed right past "the next billion users" so fast we didn't even see it happening, and the third billion, and we're closing in fast now on "the last billion".

    With that comes the ability to share, to learn, to communicate. To lift up ourselves and the people we care about, to do things we couldn't do before. And it becomes much more difficult for oppressive regimes to hide the truth from their people. It turns out that the people in faraway lands don't ride flaming dragons seeking to roast and devour small children. They are pretty much like us: striving to get by, to get along, and to get ahead.

    So. Hurrah!

  7. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Whose frowning time, now?

    growth has slowed so its frowning time

    Growth's frowning time is what? Don't leave us in suspense.

    (Email corrections? Pfaugh. If you can't snark in public, why snark at all?)

    1. VanguardG

      Re: Whose frowning time, now?

      Its essentially the same mindset as the stock market. Some company makes, for round numbers, 300 million dollars in gross profits, and sees 20 million in net profits therefrom in 2016. So...in 2017, some "analyst" performs whatever arcane rites they use and decrees that company should make gross profits of 400 million, and net profits of 40 million. So the end of 2017 rolls around and the company posts gross profits of 375 million, and net profits of 38 million. So they pulled in 75 million more and had 18 million more in the old pocket - rationally, they had a good year. BUT, the stock will *still* get beaten up on the stock exchange because they didn't reach the goals of the analyst.

      Same here...they are selling more stuff but not as much more as someone decided they should have, so its frowns all around.

      Rationally, any increase SHOULD be cause for happiness - since keeping the SAME numbers will mean less profit since costs are always rising. And the other alternative, a decrease, isn't the road to contentment either.

      I wouldn't call it "greed", as some will and have, but even a CEO answers to a Board of Directors, and the Board is answerable, in a way, to the shareholders. If the stock price goes down because the company didn't make ENOUGH more profit, the shareholders aren't happy. When they aren't happy, the Board isn't happy, and when the Board is unhappy, they make sure the CEO isn't happy either. And unfortunately for us rational types that recognize "an increase in profit is an increase in company value, ergo, my stock, which is a piece of ownership of the company, is worth more", the big institutional investors use computer programs that will dump stocks the instant the program recognizes the analysts' targets won't be met. And those guys own so MUCH of various stocks that when they dump their holdings, it drives the price down. So what's needed is for people to stop taking the analysts projections as hard-and-fast certainty, adjust the computer programs to recognize a company that makes money is doing things right, and not penalize them for it. But, that's only my opinion.

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