Research Says: Emerging Markets Drive 2017 Low-priced Smartphones into Mainstream

According to Informa, a foreign research organization, as the demand for low-end smart phones continues to increase, more than half of smartphones in the world will have a price of less than US$150 in 2017.

As user demand for entry-level devices grows, affordable smart phones will account for the vast majority of sales in the market by 2017.

Informa believes that 52% of smart phones will be priced below $150, driven by demand from emerging markets.

Currently, high-end smart phones with a price of $200 or more occupy the mainstream of the market. The Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 are priced above $200, and the Droid Razr Maxx HD is more than $300.

Last year, smart phones with a price of $250 or more accounted for 83% of the market share, and this proportion will drop to 33% by 2017.

Informa analyst Malik Saadi said: "With the development of the market, the supply chain will gradually evolve into two camps. We will continue to launch innovative players with new features and high-end performance components to follow the innovators' drive to bring new models to the mass market. ”

This trend is not good news for mobile phone manufacturers. Some manufacturers have begun to shrink the product line.

Due to subsidies, western mobile phone users do not think how expensive they are. However, such low-cost smartphones need to be replaced with long-term use contracts.

The future market will be divided into two major markets: high-end patch machines and low-end bare-metal machines.