India will overtake the US to become the world's second largest smartphone market by 2017, selling 174 million units, Strategy Analytics predicts.
The research firm forecasrs that global smartphone sales will grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017.
“China, India and United States are the big three countries driving smartphone growth worldwide today and in the future,” said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics.
Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, added that 458 million smartphones are forecast to be sold in China in 2015, rising steadily to 505 million in 2017.
Sui said China has been the engine of global smartphone growth in recent years, but China is now maturing and slowing while India is fast becoming the next major growth wave.
“We forecast 118 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2015, increasing strongly to 174 million in 2017,” said Sui. “India's growth is being driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands like Micromax."
Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics, said 164 million smartphones are forecast to be sold in the US in 2015, climbing marginally to 169 million in 2017.
“India [is primed to] overtake the maturing US market... in 2017,” said Oh. “No serious global hardware or software player can afford to ignore the huge Indian smartphone market today.”