IDC: Smartphone shipments to outpace PCs and tablets

Smartphones to be world's favourite device by 2019

IDC predicts that smartphones will represent the majority of the total smart connected device market by 2019, outperforming PCs and tablets.

The analyst's Worldwide Quarterly Smart Connected Device Tracker shows that smartphones will grab 77.7 per cent of the market by 2019, up from 70.7 per cent last year. In 2014, some 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped.

According to Tom Mainelli, programme vice president for devices at IDC, although convertible notebooks and 2-in-1s are showing growth, more are naming smartphones as their connected device of choice.

"Ultimately, for more people in more places, the smartphone is the clear choice in terms of owning one connected device," he said in a statement. "Even as we expect slowing smartphone growth later in the forecast, it's hard to overlook the dominant position smartphones play in the greater device ecosystem."

IDC predicts tablets and 2-in-1 devices combined will take second place in the market by 2019. Last year saw 229.7 million of the units shipped, representing 12.5 per cent of the market share. IDC predicts this percentage will drop to 10.7 per cent in 2019.

Portable PCs are forecast to have the third strongest hold in 2019, representing 6.8 per cent of the market. This is a decline compared with its 9.5 per cent share in 2014, thanks to 174.28 million units being shipped.

Desktop PCs are expected to see their market share dip from 7.3 per cent in 2014 to 4.8 per cent in 2019. The category shipped 133.85 million units in 2014.

Mainelli believes the smartphone trend will probably continue.

"It's not likely that anything – including wearables – will unseat it from this dominant position any time soon," he said.

Melissa Chau, senior research manager for mobile devices at IDC, said that in 2019, 35 per cent of smartphones shipped in the US will have a price of less than $100 (£67)

Meanwhile, 32 per cent of smartphones are predicted to have a screen size of at least 5.5in but less than 7in, she added.