Strategy Analytics' Emerging Device Technologies practice, in its latest handset technology forecasts for 88 countries observes that despite the imminent launch of multiple 5G smartphones in coming months, 4G will be the main technology used by handsets in coming years. In 2023 over 70% of handsets sold globally will be LTE devices. Even more surprising, 5G handset shipments will only pass 2G in 2023 in terms of global sales. In its first 5 years substantial 5G handset sales as a proportion of total handset sales will be restricted to a handful of nations, in particular China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Even well developed nations in markets like Western Europe will see slower 5G handset sales, for a variety of reasons.

In its latest report, Global Handset Sales Forecast by 88 Countries and 19 Technologies: 2003 to 2023,Strategy Analytics predicts legitimate mobile phone sales to grow 0.3% worldwide in 2018. Several billion 2G and 4G handsets will be sold globally during the next seven years, particularly in major countries such as China, USA and Brazil. LTE will be the most important growth category and global 4G volumes will grow 5% this year. 2G has risen back to the 2nd biggest segment due strong sales in emerging markets, especially in Africa. 

The extensive report forecasts handset sales for 6 regions and 88 countries worldwide, from 2002 to 2023. The datamodel provides forecasts for 19 separate 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, including GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, HSPA+, HSUPA, LTE, LTE-A and 5G. The report contains pivot-tables and flat-files for enhanced data manipulation. Clients of our Emerging Device Technologies practice can access the report here.