Mary Meeker, an analyst who currently works with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, made a presentation earlier this summer, titled the Internet Trends presentation. With it, she broke down the growth of emerging markets, as well as how they’ll be utilized when it comes to Internet use in the future.
While the full report can be found online here, the five key points Meeker made are as follows:
The strength of Android
According to Meeker, Android now holds 80 percent of the global smartphone market, which is almost a four-times share increase over the last three years alone. Adoption has been huge in emerging markets, with higher growths in APAC, Africa and Latin America. Meanwhile, in Indonesia and the Philippines, the penetration reached more than 80 percent, while in India, over 91 percent of the country’s 156 million smartphones use such technology. That’s impressive.
A decrease in cellphone costs
Since 2008, the price of cellphones has dwindled dynamically, going down from $430 in price to around $335, nearly a $100 difference. The introduction of such brands as Micromax and Karbonn in India have really made a difference, and other markets have benefitted as well, making the devices affordable to hundreds of millions of customers. By the end of this year, it’s predicted that prices for low-end phones could go as low as $20, maybe even lower.
Smartphones are the new primary screen
Meeker believes that the significant of smartphones in countries where laptops aren’t as convenience is rather low. With that, they’ve become the new primary screen for various purposes, including television viewing and web surfing. Indonesia, Philippines, China, Brazil, Vietnam and Nigeria have all seen tremendous growth, with the top two countries first mentioned exceeding over 100 minutes a day in usage.
Sustained smartphone growth
The growth of cellphones in emerging markets has continued to increase, and will continue to do so as the price of said units go down. China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia alone are set to ship just over 600 million smartphones this year alone, with more expected next year, if the emergent markets stay the course.
A shift to mobile
Finally, Meeker believes that mobile will account for 35 percent of general Internet usage by 2015, with a continuous 1.5 annual growth in smartphones, or acceleration in availability of products. The emerging markets will see the most growth, although other markets are certain to follow.
Source: Jana