MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, estimates that the global smartphone shipment volume will reach nearly 2 billion units in 2018 with the CAGR (Compound Average Growth Rate) of 18.7% for the period 2012 - 2018. Among all mobile platforms, Android continues to account for the largest share of around 76.4% in 2013.
According to Welber Chang, the senior consultant and communications director of MIC, although Microsoft's Nokia acquisition has been marked as a major step of Microsoft to integrate software and hardware capabilities, the deal is not able to alter the fact that Windows Phone ecosystem is still far from achieving the widespread use. Furthermore, the willingness of existing phone partners to continue working with Microsoft is likely to be affected as well. Meanwhile, Apple's recently revealed standalone iPhone 5C 16GB is priced at US$549. With such pricing strategy, it revealed that that Apple is still not aggressive in the low-priced smartphone market and its market share loss is likely to continue. Looking ahead to the future, as Android's dominance in the high and low-priced smartphone market segments is likely to remain with a large number of applications available, Android's development will continue to stay ahead of others. Meanwhile, a slew of smartphone branded vendors rushing into making the comprehensiveness of their respective ecosystems is expected to spur a next wave of business opportunities for products built around those ecosystems.
Regarding wireless 4G, in anticipation of China's TD-LTE licenses to be released by year-end 2013, three major Chinese telecom operators will all devote to investing 4G networks, thereby helping the TD-LTE industry to take off. Taiwanese makers in small cells, routers, dongles, and key components are likely to become China's 4G suppliers, making some of them benefactors after all.