Gen Z Abandons Smartphones, Flocks to Their Alternatives
Gen Z is abandoning smartphones, opting en masse for their alternatives.
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Smartphones are no longer the choice for young people or Gen Z. They are reportedly growing bored with using those smart devices.
“I think you can see it with a certain Gen Z population - they’re bored with screens (smartphones),” said one ‘dumb phone’ influencer, Jose Briones, quoted from CNBC International.
According to him, Gen Z is starting to consider using old-fashioned phones or feature phones. This trend began to emerge in the United States (US) a few years ago.
HMD Global is one company reaping the benefits. The company owns the ubiquitous Nokia phone brand, which sold many devices in the early 2000s.
Feature phone sales in the US surged to tens of thousands per month in 2022. This occurred even as global sales experienced a decline.
Meanwhile, the feature phone market is dominated by populations in the Middle East, Africa, and India. Counterpoint Research reported that the market in those countries reached 80% last year.
On the other hand, Indonesia’s smartphone market has not performed well. People’s purchasing power has been declining for several years.
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report stated that Indonesia’s smartphone market fell 14.3% in 2023. The number of units shipped was only 35 million.
Expensive phones are not selling
However, the situation began to improve last year. Overall, Indonesia’s smartphone market experienced positive year-on-year growth of 15.5%, reaching nearly 40 million units throughout 2024.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, vendors managed to grow strongly in the first half of 2024 after several quarters of decline in previous years.
In Q4 2024, Indonesia’s mobile phone market grew 9.6% year-on-year and was slightly stagnant at -0.2% quarter-on-quarter.
In 2024, growth was mainly driven by the ultra low-end segment (under Rp 1.6 million), led by Transsion. The mid-range segment (between Rp 3.2 - Rp 9.8 million) saw strong growth of 24.9% year-on-year, with OPPO leading that segment.
On the other hand, smartphones priced higher, from Rp 10 million upwards, declined significantly by 9.2%. This was largely due to the ban on iPhone 16 sales in Q4 2024.
The 5G share increased significantly to 25.8% in 2024, from 17.1% the previous year. This increase was mainly driven by the launch of new models and increasingly affordable 5G offerings.