Feature Phones will be Fossil Phones by 2017

In three years, I predict over 95% of cell phone users will no longer be gabbing on feature phones.

By 2017, smartphones will be pushing feature phones to the brink of extinction.

At the end of 2013, smartphones accounted for 55.1% of all mobile phone shipments compared to 41.7% in 2012.

Since smartphones prices have already broken the $100 barrier and inching further down, I suspect the collapse of feature phones will accelerate in the next two years.

The shift from feature phones to smartphones and collapse of the landlines business is one of the fastest technology shifts I’ve seen.

Total mobile phone shipments in 2013 were 1.82 billion units, up 4.8% from the 1.74 billion units shipped in 2012.

Smartphones Vendor Shipments 2013

One Response to "Feature Phones will be Fossil Phones by 2017"

  1. Naveen   January 29, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    I didn’t see this happening…

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/internet/Google-selling-Motorola-phone-business-to-Lenovo-for-2-9-billion/articleshow/29575449.cms

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Except for the iPhone, all other mobile phones (including Lenovo) are low-margin devices vulnerable to the next vendor whose device is $5 cheaper.

    I’d be surprised if Lenovo can do much with Motorola Mobility.

    I predict that Google will not get the $1.5 billion it’s supposed to get in three years as part of this deal. So in effect this is really a $1.4 billion deal.

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