By 2025, half of the world's smartphone sales could consist of 5G enabled handsets

According to a report disseminated today by Juniper Research, when 2025 comes around, 5G smartphone sales will make up 50% of handset revenue. This year, Juniper forecasts revenue of 5G phone sales to reach $108 billion with these sales more than tripling by 2025 to reach $337 billion. The new report, titled "5G Smartphones: Trends, Regional Analysis & Market Forecasts 2021-2026," explains that the successful 5G phone manufacturers will be the ones that include radios able to "process large bandwidths and deliver ultra-low latency to ensure that handset users are able to use cloud computing services efficiently, whilst remaining price competitive."

One key to increasing the adoption of 5G enabled handsets in emerging markets, according to Juniper, is to increase the availability of lower priced 5G handsets. The good news. Juniper says, is that by 2025 pricing for global Android phones will be 65% lower than pricing for global iPhone models. The report also says that the lower pricing for Android phones will help Android models dominate the 5G market in areas such as Latin America.

On the other hand, the popularity of the Apple iPhone in developed markets will help North America and Europe grab 40% of global 5G smartphone revenue by 2025. But there is at least one caveat that could negatively impact the sales of 5G phones in North America and Europe and that is legislation in the two continents that will give device owners the "right-to-repair" their older model handsets. With more users preferring to repair their older phones rather than upgrade to a new model, the number of 5G phone purchases could be less than anticipated.

Juniper's Adam Wears, the author behind the latest report, says, "The effect of these (right-to-repair) laws will not be felt initially, as consumers adopt 5G smartphones to leverage the high speeds and reduced latency of 5G networks. Hardware vendors must use this opportunity to build out new device capabilities to encourage consumers to continue regularly upgrading and avoid churn to competitors."