Deloitte's prediction of 1.35 billion smartphone sales in 2015

Deloitte's forecast that 2015 will see 1.35 billion new smartphones sold across the world is already being supported by Apple Inc.'s disclosure that it's record quarterly profit announced this week was partly driven by the highest ever sales of its flagship iPhone device.

30 Jan 2015

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Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended 27 December 2014, thanks to the highest ever revenue from iPhone and Mac sales. Fiscal first quarter iPhone sales rose 46% to 74.5 million units, beating the 72.3 million sales of the device that occurred in the company's entire 2011 fiscal year.

"There has been some concern voiced in recent years that smartphone sales might plateau at some point but our research indicates that consumer appetite for the functionality that smartphones provide is only likely to grow further this year," said Mark Casey, Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry leader for Africa at Deloitte. "That will fuel more smartphone sales and smartphone-driven purchases of goods and services."

The 14th edition of Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions survey, released on 14 January, indicated that 2015 would see global in-store smartphone purchases surge by more than 1,000% from last year. Of the 1.35 billion new smartphones Deloitte expects to be sold this year, more than one billion will be upgrades as existing smartphone users trade up to more sophisticated handsets such as the bigger-screen iPhone® 6.

"The end of 2015 will be a tipping point for the use of mobile phones for in-store payments around the world as it will be the first year in which all the prerequisites for mainstream adoption - satisfying financial institutions, merchants, consumers and device vendors - will be sufficiently addressed," said Casey. "In 2015 about 10% of the global smartphone base will be used to make an in-store payment at least once a month. That compares to less than 0.5% of the roughly 450 million smartphones that were in use in mid-2014."

Deloitte's Global TMT Predictions report also expects the number of homes around the world with broadband internet access to grow by about 2% to 725 million, while average broadband speeds in most countries will likely to increase by 20%.

View Deloitte's Global TMT Predictions