While the worldwide smartphone market is expected to decline again in 2018, IDC believes the market will experience low single-digit growth from 2019 through the end of its forecast in 2022. The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker forecasts worldwide smartphone shipments to decline 0.7% in 2018 to 1.455 billion units, down from 1.465 billion in 2017. However, IDC believes the market will return to positive growth in the second half of 2018 with volumes up 1.1% compared to the second half of 2017. In the long-term forecast, IDC expects the overall smartphone market to reach 1.646 billion units shipped in 2022.

Looking at the smartphone market from a geographic perspective, China is finally showing signs of recovery and while IDC still expects the largest market in the world to be down 6.3% in 2018 (slightly worse than the 2017 downturn), that is mainly attributed to an extremely poor first half, which saw smartphone volumes down 11%. The second half is expected to improve to a decline of 2% before returning to positive growth in 2019. Asia/Pacific as a region still holds plenty of market growth led by India and Indonesia, which are expected to grow shipments in 2018 by 14.4% and 15.4% respectively.

Android: Android's smartphone share will hover around 85% share throughout the forecast. Volumes are expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 2.4%, with shipments approaching 1.41 billion in 2022. Among the more interesting trends happening with Android shipments is that average selling prices (ASPs) are growing at a double-digit pace. IDC expects Android ASPs to grow 11.4% in 2018 to $262, up from $235 in 2017. IDC expects this upward trajectory to continue through the forecast, but at a more tempered low single-digit rate from 2019 and beyond. This is a sign of many OEMs slowly migrating their user base upstream to the slightly more expensive handsets. Overall this is a positive sign that consumers are seeing the benefits of moving to a slightly more premium device than they likely previously owned. The broad range of colors, screen sizes, features, and brands are a large catalyst for this movement.

iOS: iPhone volumes are expected to grow by 2.1% in 2018 to 220.4 million in total. IDC is forecasting iPhones to grow at a five-year CAGR of 2.0%, reaching volumes of 238.5 million by 2022. With larger screen iOS smartphones coming up for launch in the second half of 2018, IDC has shifted greater volumes into the 6-inch to sub-7-inch screen size forecast for iOS. Products are on schedule to begin shipping in the third quarter and ramping up into the fourth quarter of 2018, with volumes growing to account for half of all iPhones shipped by 2022.