Smartphones first accounted for more than 50% of total quarterly cellphone shipments in the first quarter of 2013. In fourth-quarter 2015, smartphones are forecast to reach 435 million units or 80% of total cellphones shipped, according to IC Insights. On an annual basis, smartphones first surpassed the 50% penetration level in 2013 (54%) and are forecast to represent 93% of total cellphone shipments in 2018.

In contrast, non-smartphone cellphone shipments dropped by 18% in 2013 and 23% in 2014. Moreover, IC Insights expects the 2015 non-smartphone cellphone unit shipment decline to be steeper than 2014's drop with a decline of 27%. Total cellphone unit shipments grew by only 5% in 2014 and are forecast to grow by only 3% in 2015.

Samsung and Apple dominated the smartphone market in both 2013 and 2014. In total, these two companies shipped 457 million smartphones and held a combined 47% share of the total smartphone market in 2013. These two companies shipped over 500 million smartphones in 2014 (503.9 million), but their combined smartphone unit market share dropped 7pp to 40%. It appears that both Samsung and Apple are losing smartphone market share to the up-and-coming China-based producers like Xiaomi, Yulong/Coolpad, and TCL.

In contrast to the weakening fortunes of Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC, 2013-2014 smartphone sales from China-based Lenovo (which acquired Motorola's smartphone business from Google in October of 2014), Huawei, Xiaomi, Yulong/Coolpad, and TCL surged. Combined, the six top-10 China-based smartphone suppliers shipped 359 million smartphones in 2014, a 79% increase from the 201 million smartphones these six companies shipped in 2013. As a result, the top-6 China-based smartphone suppliers together held a 29% share of the worldwide smartphone market in 2014, up 8pp from the 21% share these companies held in 2013.

In early 2015, there were numerous reports of slowing in the China smartphone market. Since most of China's smartphone producer's sales are to local customers, this slowdown became evident in their smartphone sales figures for the first quarter of 2015, IC Insights indicated. In total, the top-6 China-based smartphone suppliers shipped 83.4 million smartphones and held a 25% share of the worldwide smartphone market in the first quarter of 2015, down 4pp from their 29% combined market share in 2014.

China-based smartphone suppliers primarily serve the China and Asia-Pacific marketplaces, IC Insights noted. Their smartphones, unlike those from Apple, Sony and HTC, are low-cost low-end handsets that typically sell for less than US$200. In some cases, smartphones sold by China-based companies have been known to sell for as little as US$50.

With much of the growth in the smartphone market currently taking place in developing countries such as China and India, low-end smartphones are expected to be a driving force in the smartphone market over the next few years. IC Insights defines low-end smartphones as those that sell for US$200 or less and high-end smartphones as those that sell for greater than US$200.