The growth of the South Korean market for smartphones will begin slowing down this year and possibly post a negative growth in 2016 due to market saturation, a U.S. market research group said in a report released Sunday.

According to the report from Strategy Analytics, the local market for smartphones is expected to grow 8 percent from a year earlier to around 33.1 million units this year.

The growth rate will mark a significant slowdown from an explosive 717 percent on-year surge in 2010, as well as a 75 percent growth in 2012.

The report said the country’s smartphone market will reach a peak of some 33.8 million units in 2015 and begin to post a negative growth rate of about 1 percent the following year to bring the overall market size down to about 33.1 million units in 2017.

Local analysts said the outlook was rather obvious as the country only has a total population of 50 million.

“The country’s smartphone market had already entered a maturity stage before last year but was again able to grow (last year) on demand for the new long term evolution phones,” an analyst said, asking not to be identified.

“The market is widely expected to maintain the status quo, at least for some time,” he added.

With the anticipated stagnation in the local market, South Korean manufacturers are expected to increasingly look overseas for new markets, the analyst noted.

Smartphones markets in most newly emerging countries, including India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, are expected to post double-digit growth each year until 2017, according to market observers here.

India, for instance, is expected to see its smartphone market grow by an annual average of 30.2 percent over the cited period. (Yonhap News)