14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung will continue to be the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer in 2018, according to an in-depth forecast from TrendForce, but the company is likely to fall throughout the year.
Apple, instead, will continue growing, getting closer to the South Korean rival, and together with Nokia, will drive the smartphone market forward this year.
The smartphone growth is expected to slow down to just 2.8% in 2018, TrendForce says, with approximately 1.5 billion sold units. Even though Huawei is also expected to grow, Apple and Nokia are “the only international brands with a clear future of growth” this year, the company says.
Samsung is likely to drop from 21.9% share to 20.3% in 2018, which is quite a substantial loss in just 12 months, while Apple is projected to increase the share from 15.2% to 15.7%.
“As the industry leader, Samsung will remain the top for smartphone production in 2018, and is expected to continue the success of its budget A and J series. The smartphone production volume of Samsung is estimated at 300 million units in 2018, a decrease of 5% YoY,” the market research firm says.
New iPhones driving Apple’s growth
The Cupertino-based tech giant should benefit from the new models launching this year, which are all believed to embrace Face ID and come with edge-to-edge displays, while also boasting new features and more RAM. iPhone production is estimated to improve by 6% thanks to the new models and Apple’s expansion in India.
Nokia’s growth will be driven by its Indian production facilities, with production volume to increase by as much as 70% and total 20 million units.
TrendForce says this year it expects most phone makers to build devices with bezel-less displays and 18:9 aspect ratios. Apple’s iPhone will still bet big on Face ID, while Samsung will invest in iris recognition. In the meantime, the rest of the companies will stick with fingerprint readers, and models with sensors embedded into the glass won’t become available until the second half of 2018.
