Smartphone sales to surpass 1.7 bil. units in 2017

Global smartphone sales are projected to surpass 1.7 billion units in the next five years, largely due to their brisk market penetration into emerging markets, an industry report showed Sunday.

Of the 1.7 billion smartphones estimated to be sold worldwide, 57 percent will likely be purchased by China and Russia, according to the report by market researcher Ovum.

The report revealed that a total of 450 million smartphones were sold throughout the globe last year, of which 160 million, or 35 percent, were purchased in emerging markets. China took up more than half of the emerging market sales, it noted.

The report cited a fast distribution of very low-priced smartphone models in the emerging countries as part of reasons for the outlook.

It forecast that Chinese companies will spearhead the spread of cheap smartphones, with other emerging nations like India and Brazil likely to follow suit.

In China, big Internet portal providers, including Baidu and Alibaba, have been tapping into developing the operation system (OS) for smartphones, the report added.

Ovum predicted that the spread of smartphones in the emerging markets will provide a foothold for various online mobile services such as cloud computing and mobile wallet to grow, according to the report. (Yonhap)