IDC: Apple Drives The Higher-End, Android The Lower

This week the IDC has suggested with their outlook on the smartphone market over the next few years that "Mature" smartphone markets will slow. They've suggested that "Emerging" markets (Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa), meanwhile, are growing at a rate of 32.4% year-over-year. Who is poised to command which market, you might wonder?

Below you'll see a chart made by the IDC. there you'll find that Emerging Markets are growing at a high rate. These are predictions – as evidenced by the year 2018 in the chart – so keep that in mind.

Mature markets, on the other hand, are growing at a slower rate. Both markets will eventually even out over time – by 2018, the IDC suggests their growth rate year-over-year will be under 10% – but for now, Emerging Markets are growing far quicker than Mature markets.

IDC tracks the following areas with these categories:

Mature Markets: U.S., Western Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Emerging Markets: Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Apple's contribution to this puzzle in the very near future is in a larger iPhone. "With the expected entry of Apple into this market segment, and the pent-up demand for a larger screen iPhone," suggests the IDC, "Apple has the ability to drive replacement cycles in mature markets despite the slower growth seen in recent quarters."

So Apple has the unique ability to drive higher-end sales even in a market which is growing at its lowest rates in years.

Meanwhile, according to the IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Program Director Ryan Reith, "The support that Google's Android platform has received from over 150 handset manufacturers has allowed it to gain the share it has in emerging markets. "The lack of constraints around hardware and software specifications has helped bring to market many low-cost products, a lot of which could be considered borderline junk. With Google's recent announcement of Android One, they hope to change this by laying out a set of standards for manufacturers to follow."

You can learn more about Android One from the program's introduction earlier this year at Google I/O: Android One is Google's Nexus program for emerging markets. It's time to spread with quality, not just quantity.

Apple's iPhone 6, on the other hand, is set to be revealed on the 9th of September. Have a peek at our Apple Hub for more information than you could possibly swallow.