South Korea and the United States are leading the way in devices with 4G LTE capability, while devices from local vendors are on the rise, according to the latest Netbiscuits Web Trends Report.
The quarterly analysis, based on consumer web usage in 242 countries, found that local device vendors are starting to gain traction in Europe, whereas before the trend was largely confined to Asia. Wiko, a French vendor, and bq from Spain have made the top 50 devices in their own countries for the first, time, with 3% and 1.5% share respectively.
The global top 25 device list still has a very similar feel to it: the iPhone 5/5C/5S had 17% share, followed by the iPhone 4/S and a litany of Samsung Galaxy phones.
Local vendors marginally cannibalising the market still occurred in Asia. Xiaomi captured traffic share from Apple and Samsung, while India has Micromax and Karbonn increasing its position in top 100 device traffic, and Japan has Sony, Sharp, Fujitsu, NEC and Panasonic all in its ecosystem.
The report noted: “Japan is a strong and popular market for Apple, which could not prevent a quarter-on-quarter decline in its share of traffic”, adding: “At a global level, it means that the sheltered world of Apple, with its regular and consistent upgrades, and the predictability of the Samsung sphere, is going to be increasingly challenged.”
Screen sizes are getting larger for consumers as well, according to the report – and it’s a trend which is bang in line with the local vendors, as Wiko and bq devices have larger screens than the iPhone.
Devices which had 3 to 3.9 inch screens decreased globally between Q114 and Q214, from 30% to 26%, while every other metric went up – 4-4.49 inch screens rose 3%, 4.5-4.9 inch screens went up 2%, and 5-5.9 inch screens increased 1%. According to Netbiscuits the greatest shift towards 5-5.9 inch screens came from the US, Canada and Australia.
Elsewhere, South Korea and the United States were the two clear leaders in terms of 4G LTE capable devices, with 76% and 67% of the top 100 devices in the list LTE-friendly. A gaggle of similarly-placed countries followed, led by Sweden (47%), Japan (45%) and Canada (43%). The UK had one in three (33%) devices as capable.
The full report can be found here. What do you make of it?
