LIVE FROM CANALYS CHANNELS FORUM, TAIPEI: Canalys predicted a rebound in the smartphone market in 2020, kicking off a three-year era of growth as consumer demand is invigorated by 5G, foldable screens and faster chipsets.

Rushabh Doshi, research director of global mobility (pictured), expects Asia Pacific (APAC) to perform best in 2020, mainly because of rising demand for 5G handsets in China where operators are aggressively deploying the technology.

Growth in 5G will also be driven by South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Demonstrating the level of innovation, he pointed to the Motorola Razr and foldables from Samsung and Huawei.

In addition to faster chipsets, he expects 5G smartphones to feature larger screens and more storage, with up to 16GB possible in entry-level models.

With consumers paying a premium for the first wave of 5G handsets, he predicted an initial boost in ASPs, but thinks prices will fall faster than in 4G because vendors are more connected to the supply chain and committed to lowering prices to appeal to a wider audience.

Doshi believes smartphones will increasingly be used by enterprises as applications expand and become more robust, with the devices expected to replace PCs in many cases.

APAC
Smartphone shipments in the APAC region fell 2.8 per cent year-on-year in Q3 to 549 million units due to weak performances by Huawei and Apple.

The Chinese vendor experienced its worst year in the region after a phenomenal rise over the last five years, because of trade tensions between US in China, with the company put on a trade blacklist.

He said Apple is struggling in China due to innovation lag and, more importantly, a backlash from consumers turning to local brands in response to the US trade war.

The China market was hit by lengthening refresh cycles and has seen declines for the past three years, Doshi said.