Global 5G smartphone shipments to grow from just 5 million in 2019 to 1 billion in 2025

Global 5G smartphone shipments will reach a modest 5 million units in 2019 as early models will be expensive and available in limited volumes, forecasts market research firm Strategy Analytics in its Insight report ‘5G Smartphones: From Zero to a Billion’.

“Less than 1% of all smartphones shipped worldwide will be 5G-enabled this year,” says Ken Hyers, director at Strategy Analytics. “Global 5G smartphone shipments are tiny for now, due to expensive device pricing, component bottlenecks, and restricted availability of active 5G networks,” he adds.

“Samsung will be the early 5G smartphone leader in the first half of 2019, due to initial launches across South Korea and the United States,” notes senior analyst Ville Petteri-Ukonaho. “We predict LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola and others will follow later in the year, followed by Apple iPhone with its first 5G model in second-half 2020. The iPhone looks set to be at least a year behind Samsung in the 5G smartphone race and Apple must be careful not to fall too far behind,” he adds.

“The short-term outlook for 5G smartphones is weak, but the long-term opportunity remains huge,” comments Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. “We forecast 1 billion 5G smartphones to ship worldwide per year by 2025. The introduction of 5G networks, by carriers like Verizon or China Mobile, opens up high-speed, ultra-low-latency services such as 8K video, streaming games, and augmented reality (AR) for business. The next big question for the mobile industry is how much extra consumers are really willing to pay, if anything, for those emerging 5G smartphones and services.”

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