Global smartphone growth to decline sharply in 2014: IDC

IDC predicts that growth in smartphone shipments will fall to 19.3 percent this year.

According to market research firm IDC, growth in global smartphone shipments will fall sharply this year, and keep slowing through 2018. The report adds that average prices will also drop significantly as demand shifts to China and other developing countries.

The smartphone market saw a 39.2 percent increase in 2013 and for the first time global shipments touched 1 billion. However, IDC says that annual growth in 2014 is expected to be 19.3 percent and will decline to just 6.2 percent in 2018.

The report forecasts that the smartphone explosion that started with Apple's iPhone in 2007 is coming to an end in the US and other developed countries where consumers are already using high end devices. The growth is expected to decline to single digits in North America and Europe and even Japan will see a slowdown in shipments over the next few years.

IDC predicts that the average selling price for smartphones will decline from $335 last year to $260 by 2018, which is already far below flagship devices like the iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S4. The report says that China will see an increase in smartphone shipments where consumers are upgrading from basic cell phones to smartphones under $300.

"New markets for growth bring different rules to play by and 'premium' will not be a major factor in the regions driving overall market growth," IDC analyst Ryan Reith said in a report.

According to a research carried out by Strategy Analytics, Android accounted for nearly 79 percent of all smartphone shipments in 2013. The report adds that almost 990 million smartphones were shipped last year, of which 781.2 million were Android run smartphones, that is four times as many shipments of both Apple and Microsoft combined. Samsung emerged as a clear leader in smartphone shipments with 31.1 percent of the market share.