Smartphone market just like the PC market is expected to be the next big thing which is soon going to get saturated. Going back from where the evolution first started, the feature phones are surprisingly doing well and is expected to do so in the coming days especially in developing countries. Counter Point’s Market Monitor service revealed that feature phones had contributed 23 percent of the total handset shipments in Q3 2018.
Besides being a sizeable market, feature phones are also doing great at sustaining the growth; its shipments grew for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Countries, where feature phones are going head to head against the smartphones, are Middle East, Africa, and India followed by other countries in Asia, Central & Latin America, Europe, and North America.
Counterpoint also gives credit to HMD which according to them made a significant contribution along with iTel in making the Feature phone market still relevant.
One interesting point to note here is that today’s feature phones are no longer the same as what it used to be 10 years ago. Today’s feature phone has LTE, can play YouTube videos, capable enough to run other popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. The definition of a feature has changed over the past few years. Nonetheless, Nokia is currently second to iTel and the company can eventually make it to the top with a competitive price point.
What do you guys think about feature phones? What’s your thought on the growth of feature phones? Do sound off in the comments section below.
