The nation’s market for smart devices, including smartphones, tablets and computers, is expected to post negative growth this year for the first time, a research firm said Tuesday.
IDC Corporate Korea said domestic shipments of smart devices would fall 5 percent on-year to 28.3 million units in 2013, and its sales would drop 7.9 percent to 21.8 trillion won ($21 billion). This is in stark contrast with the stable 26.8 percent growth of global shipments in the same period.
“The domestic smartphone market reached saturation point after substantially growing for the last three years since 2009,” IDC Korea said.
“The smart device market will continue to fall to 2.7 million units next year,” said IDC Korea analyst Kim Tae-jin.
By segment, smartphone shipments and sales are expected to decline 3.2 percent and 7.1 percent on-year, respectively, to 22 million units and 17 trillion won. Computer shipments and sales are projected to drop 11.3 percent and 9.7 percent to 5.1 million units and 4.6 trillion won.
In contrast with the upward global trend, the tablet market is also expected to fall 8.2 percent and 16.3 percent to 1.1 million units and 65 million won in sales. “It is partially due to the lack of applications and content for tablets compared to other countries including the United States and Western European countries,” said Kim Ae-ri, an analyst at IDC Korea.
The global smartphone and tablet markets are expected to see 39.3 percent and 53.5 percent growth particularly in developing countries, while the computer segment is predicted to drop 10.1 percent.
