A/NZ handset market hits plateau in Q2

The Australian and New Zealand mobile phone market appears to have reached a plateau, with analyst firm IDC finding that total shipments fell more than 20% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2013.

Overall shipments, including smartphones and feature phones, dropped to around 2.6 million units during the quarter.

While most of the decline can be attributed to a 45% slump in feature phone sales, there was also a slight reduction in demand for smartphones.

IDC A/NZ mobility analyst Aman Bajaj said the figures highlight a slowdown in the replacement demand that had previously been driving strong growth in the smartphone segment.

“Feature phones now only account for under a fifth of mobile phone shipments. This suggests that the majority of mobile users have already made the transition to a smart device,” he said.

Bajaj pointed out that smartphone shipments declined during the quarter despite the launch of some high-profile devices, such as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4.

As with other regions, the A/NZ smartphone market is dominated by Android and iOS. These platforms together command a more than 90% market share, with Android taking the lion’s share.

Windows Phone took a distant third, followed by BlackBerry. Both platforms face an uphill battle in luring end users away from Android and iOS, Bajaj said.

Image courtesy of Phil Roeder under CC