GOOG Alphabet Inc

By Betsy Morris 

The growth in global smartphone shipments ground to a near halt this year, according to research firm International Data Corp., in the latest sign that the mobile-phone boom is petering out.

Companies will ship a record 1.45 billion smartphones in 2016, according to estimates by IDC. That is an annual growth rate of less than 1%, down sharply from 10.4% last year and 47% as recently as 2012.

Shipment increases in some pockets of China, India and Indonesia and other emerging markets continue as new users buy low-cost smartphones and convert to faster 4G wireless technology. Shipments of 4G smartphones are expected to grow 21.3% to 1.17 billion units this year. In India, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. is trying to quickly change the market, IDC said, by offering data and smartphones at very low rates.

But that growth is offset by a slowdown in mature markets like the U.S., which with an 11.4% share of shipments is the world's second largest after the Asia/Pacific region, according to IDC. Since U.S. wireless carriers moved away from offering discounted smartphones to lure customers, U.S. mobile phone owners "have become much more aware of what the phone is worth and aren't switching so fast," said Anthony Scarsella, an IDC research manager. They are delaying upgrades, he says, saying "this phone is good enough for me."

The accelerating slowdown this year comes in part from an estimated 11% decrease in shipments of Apple Inc.'s iPhone -- the first full year of declining shipments for the device since it made its debut in 2007. Apple held about 14% of the global smartphone market this year, IDC said.

IDC estimated shipments this year of smartphones running Alphabet Inc.'s Android software, which now account for 85% of the market, will increase 5% over a year earlier. Phones employing software from Microsoft Corp. and others account for less than 1% of the market, it said.

Write to Betsy Morris at betsy.morris@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 29, 2016 18:31 ET (23:31 GMT)

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