All the air is running out of the iPhone balloon, the WSJ reports.
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.
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.
