Over the past five years, smartphones have quietly outpaced every other consumer technology product. Between 2020 and 2024, buyers worldwide picked up more than 9.3 billion handsets, and projections suggest[1] another 8.5 billion will reach the market by 2030. That scale leaves laptops, tablets, and desktop PCs far behind.
Phones vs. Other Devices
By the end of the decade, consumers are expected to purchase close to 951 million tablets, around 441 million laptops, and just 65 million desktop computers. Put together, these totals still amount to barely a fraction of the smartphone market. On current trends, people will buy six times more smartphones than all three categories combined.
Spending Power
The money involved is just as striking. Global buyers have been spending between $420 billion and $470 billion a year on new handsets since 2020. Forecasts suggest that total will pass half a trillion dollars in 2026, before rising steadily to about $560 billion by 2029.
Shipment Growth
Behind the financial scale lies a slow but steady climb in annual shipments. Starting at 1.40 billion units in 2020, the market rose to 1.51 billion in 2021, 1.52 billion in 2022, and 1.59 billion in 2023. In 2024, sales reached 1.63 billion devices. Projections for the next few years point to incremental gains: 1.64 billion in 2025, 1.65 billion in 2026, and 1.67 billion in 2027. By 2030, shipments are expected to settle near 1.75 billion units a year.
| Year | Shipments (billion units) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.40 |
| 2021 | 1.51 |
| 2022 | 1.52 |
| 2023 | 1.59 |
| 2024 | 1.63 |
| 2025 | 1.64 |
| 2026 | 1.65 |
| 2027 | 1.67 |
| 2028 | 1.69 |
| 2029 | 1.71 |
| 2030 | 1.75 |
Read next:
• AI Search Traffic Rises Fast, But Organic Still Converts
• How Many Days of Work It Takes to Buy an iPhone 17 Pro Worldwide: 2025 iPhone Affordability Index[2][3]
References
- ^ projections suggest (www.statista.com)
- ^ AI Search Traffic Rises Fast, But Organic Still Converts (www.digitalinformationworld.com)
- ^ How Many Days of Work It Takes to Buy an iPhone 17 Pro Worldwide: 2025 iPhone Affordability Index (www.digitalinformationworld.com)