Average selling price of phones went up 7% in Q3, a new record

Do recent smartphones feel more expensive? It’s more than just your gut feeling, data by GfK shows a record rise in the average selling price (ASP) of phones for the third quarter of this year - it's up by 7% compared to the same period last year.

Global demand rose moderately (up 3% YoY) to a total of 367 million units – the highest number for this period of the year. This growth was driven by Latin America (+11%) and Central and Eastern Europe (+9%) as traditionally strong markets are seeing a decline.

Western Europe was the destination for 30.9 million phones, down 7% compared to last year. But maker revenues are up as the ASP went up 11%. One in eight smartphones sold over the three month period cost above $900. Last year only one in sixteen cost that much.

Compare that to the Central and Eastern parts of Europe. In total, they bought 22.3 million units (up 9%) with the ASP going up a whopping 26%! That shows a massive shift towards buying higher-end devices in the region.

Latin America sales were up 11%, driven mostly by demand in Brazil. The Middle East and Africa also saw rising sales and GfK believes that Sub-Saharan and South African countries will continue to drive demand as smartphones displace the still-popular featurephones in the region.

Even China, home to many budged-friendly phone brands, saw a significant 15% increase in ASP on the back of rising demand – 117 million phones were sold during the quarter. Other Asian countries showed even stronger demand with Malaysia and Bangladesh seeing sales rise 25% and 22% respectively.

Things look different in South Korea – sales dropped 15% to 16.4 million units and GfK lowered its 2017 sales estimate.

Below is GfK's forecast for the full year 2017.

Source