Changing Market

Low-priced Chinese smartphones are mushrooming due to the Terminal Distribution Structure Improvement Act.
Low-priced Chinese smartphones are mushrooming due to the Terminal Distribution Structure Improvement Act.

 

Competition between smart device makers is expected to be more intense next year, with mid-range and low-cost smartphones accounting for more than 50 percent of the global smartphone market. In addition, the country is likely to face growing threats from the Chinese ICT industry.

Next year will be a turning point in a paradigm of ICT competition, according to a report on 10 major issues in the ICT sector in 2015 issued by the KT Economics & Management Research Center on Dec. 3.

The research center predicted that mid to low-range phones would emerge as the mainstream in 2015, along with premium smartphones. Market research firm Strategy Analytics also said that the weight of mid-range and low-cost phones will increase from 20.4 percent in 2011 to as much as 55 percent next year.

The institute stressed that Korea should keep a close eye on Chinese IT companies, which are growing fast thanks to huge local demand. Since their influence is going beyond low-cost smartphones and expanding to UHD TVs and wearable devices, they are likely to threaten the Korean ICT sector further.

With smart devices becoming more popular, smart media based on the mobile platform is expected to flourish in 2015. In addition, the cloud computing market is projected to grow, due to the government's cloud-promoting policy and an expansion of global enterprises' participation.

Competition between Daum Kakao and Naver's LINE, which are trying to find new business models in finance and shopping, is likely to enter a second mobile messaging platform round.

In new convergence industries, global ICT companies are expected to compete for new platforms in the mobile health care area. Competition to dominate platforms in the Internet of Things sector is also going to kick into high gear next year. In the meantime, the smart home market is forecast to be reorganized from one centered on big suppliers to that centered on the supplies of low-cost terminals.

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