The smartphone market is poised for a strong 2025, driven by product portfolio refreshes among leading handset manufacturers, rising consumer interest in innovative artificial intelligence (AI) features, and growing demand for and increased affordability of 5G devices.
IDC’s five-year forecast for smartphone shipments worldwide by operating system shows that the smartphone market reached 1,21-billion units shipped in 2024, up 4% from 2023.
According to IDC, sales of affordable Android smartphones are growing rapidly in emerging markets, while premium markets are embracing new AI features.
This year 2025, 5G adoption is expected to accelerate throughout Africa
According to some trends from the IDC forecast, throughout Africa, we have seen a surge in 5G investment, including spectrum auctions, pilots and commercial launches. With smartphone manufacturers leveraging the latest systems on chips (SoCs), we are also seeing more affordable 5G-ready smartphones hit the market.
This has set the stage for accelerated 5G adoption across Africa in 2025. IDC forecasts 13,2% growth in global sales of 5G-powered devices in 2025, following near 16% growth in 2024.
Also, Generative AI will fuel the next generation of smartphone innovation even as chipmakers like MediaTek are already integrating next-generation generative AI features with their SoCs.
Some examples of the features we can expect to become commonplace in smartphones include AI-generated subtitles for video calls, real-time translations of multiple languages and AI notetaking with summaries and proofreading.
The productivity gains in classrooms, work and personal life will be enormous.
IDC forecasts that AI-powered devices will be the fastest-growing segment in the smartphone category.
Growth in 2025 is expected to hit 73%. By 2028, worldwide gen AI smartphone shipments will reach 912-million units, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 78,4% for 2023-2028.
