IDC has shown that a total of 3.5 million smartphones were shipped to the Philippines in the first quarter of 2016. The growing smartphone adoption among Filipinos and stronger support from telco operators drive the Philippines smartphone market to a high 20% year-over-year growth. This puts the Philippines as the fastest-growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia to date, according to IDC. “While many of the more mature smartphone markets of the world already displayed signs of saturation, the Philippines smartphone market continues to enjoy robust growth owing to a relatively low smartphone penetration rate (30% in 2015), active local brand presence, and healthy consumer spending”, said Jerome Dominguez, Market Analyst for Mobile Devices, IDC Philippines. “As the Philippines smartphone market matures and shifts from being an acquisition game to a replacement one, consumers are expected to demand more from a smartphone in terms of specs and performance – added Dominguez -. One sign of the local smartphone market gradually maturing is the move among entry-level players away from less than 1GB random access memory toward higher RAM chips. From 44% share in 2015, less-than-1GB-RAM smartphones dropped to 38% as consumer demand for higher RAM for new mobile applications to run smoothly”. IDC expects smartphone shipments to the Philippines to grow by 25% this year.
