Driven by factors like 5G, component shortage, and innovations like foldable/flip form factor by Samsung, global smartphone wholesale price will grow more than 11 percent (on-year) from $279 (about Rs 20,686) in 2020 to $310 (nearly Rs 22,984) in 2021, the highest price in the smartphone industry since 2013.

According to the latest research from market research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone wholesale revenue is expected to grow more than 21 percent YoY to reach its highest-ever value at $435 billion in 2021.

“This is driven by smartphone sales volume that will rebound at +9 percent YoY and the higher average price point. This is the first time that average global wholesale price crossed the $300 mark over the past nine years,” said Abhilash Kumar, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.

“The price increase is driven by tech migration towards 5G smartphones, supply constraints due to component shortage which is leading to price hikes and new hardware innovations like foldable/flip form factor by Samsung,” Kumar added.

Smartphones in the “$600 and above” price tier are behind the market growth.

“This is driven by the solid sales of the iPhone 12 series, enriched foldable line up from Samsung, and sales of other premium devices from Chinese vendors like the OnePlus 9 series, Xiaomi 11 series, OPPO Reno series, Vivo X series, etc,” informed Linda Sui, Senior Director at Strategy Analytics.

“We expect the newly-launched iPhone 13 series will add to the above-mentioned factors during the fourth quarter of 2021,” Sui added.

The report forecasts “$600 and above” price tier will grow 34 percent YoY by volume and 48 percent YoY by revenue, significantly outperforming the overall market and other price bands.

“We expect global smartphone wholesale prices to fall back modestly to $300 in 2022. Easing supply constraints and component price spikes, as well as the expected iPhone SE model which should be refreshed during the first half of 2022 will fuel price pullbacks,” commented Kumar.

China, the US, Japan, and India are the top four largest countries by smartphone wholesale revenue, to contribute 53 percent of the global smartphone wholesale revenues in 2022.