According to Strategy Analytics, 5G equipment will have a slow start in 2019 and will take off in 2020. It believes that 5G mobile phones will account for nearly half of all mobile phone sales in five years. Ken Hyers, director of Strategy Analytics, said “South Korea is currently leading the 5G competition, but China intends to quickly become the global 5G leader. The ability to provide a low-cost 5G smartphone is critical for China to achieve this goal next year.”
Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, deputy director of Strategy Analytics, added, “Although it will start slowly in 2019, 5G will take off quickly. Once the price drops and the 5G available network expands, 5G mobile phone sales will surge. By 2025, 5G mobile phone sales should exceed 1 billion.”
Gizchina News of the week
“The first 5G devices will be high-end devices, but by the end of 2020 there will be more 5G mid-range devices in the market, especially in China”. Strategy Analytics estimates that sales of 5G devices will account for less than 1% of total sales in 2019. However, by 2020 its share will be close to 10%. Ken Hyers pointed out that “the cost is the biggest concern of early consumers; buyers don’t want to spend a lot of money to buy a poor device with less available network. Operators must continue to expand the coverage of 5G networks to make 5G more for available for consumers”
At present, the leading brand of 5G smartphones is Samsung. According to Strategy Analytics’ Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, “Sams has successfully achieved a lead in the 5G smartphone market, mainly due to strong sales in Korea and by expanding its share in the 5G market in the US.” Ken Hyers added: “LG, Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi are also early 5G smartphone manufacturers in the market”.
However, the rise of 5G mobile phones in 2020 will be a turning point in sales. All major smartphone manufacturers including Apple are currently developing 5G mobile phones. From 2020, sales of 5G smartphones will increase sharply in China, the US and other Asian/Western European countries.
