FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—Hold on mobile payments, the smartphone market isn’t growing as fast as expected, a new report indicates.
Worldwide, smartphone shipments are expected to grow 10.4% in 2015 to 1.44 billion units—a big drop from the 27.5% growth recorded last year, according to an IDC report. Previously, IDC forecast 11.3% growth this year.
The drop in smartphone shipments is due to demand in China cooling, IDC reported. China purchased almost a third of the world's smartphones last year, and shipments in that country are expected to grow just 1.2% in 2015, down dramatically from the 19.7% growth last year.
"China clearly remains a very important market. However, the focus will be more on exports than consumption, as domestic growth slows significantly," Ryan Reith, program director for the IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said in a statement.
CNBC reported that what will help drive the smartphone market in the next few years will be steadily falling average selling prices of phones, with global shipments expected to hit 1.9 billion units annually by 2019.