Global Handset Smartphone Feature Phone Sales Forecast for 88 Countries: 2007 to 2031

Global smartphone sales rose 0.7% to 1.17B in 2025, but higher prices cut the 2026 forecast to 1.10B before modest growth resumes.

In 2025, global smartphone sales grew by 0.7% to 1.17 billion units, boosted by emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. However, the upward trend is expected to be interrupted by significantly higher sales prices this year. AI demand has been snatching up chip vendors' memory manufacturing capacity, pushing up the component cost of smartphones as well. As a result, we tweaked our 2026 sales forecast down to 1.10 billion in the version, indicating an annual decline of 6%. The global market will rebound modestly in 2027 and continue to grow to 1.24 billion units with a CAGR of 2.5% through 2031. All regional markets are expected to follow the global pattern during our forecast window.