In recent years, we have followed the iPhone growing to unimaginable levels and leading Apple to become the most valuable company on the planet. He is so important to her today that he has become a reason for concern for the company, after all, it knows that nothing is eternal. For this reason, Apple has invested heavily in other product lines and, mainly, in services.
But it's not just for Apple that the iPhone has become very important. Today, it is also a determinant for global economic growth and whoever says that is nothing less than the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in his last report World Economic Outlook.
The IMF recalls the stratospheric growth of the iPhone: in the first quarter of 2012, some years after its arrival on the market, 35.1 million units were sold. In the fourth quarter of 2016, that number exploded to 78.3 million.
The new technological cycle is seen as being captured by non-seasonal factors. It depends critically on the release dates of iPhones, since the models flagship Apple's push global demand. In fact, iPhones topped sales in the fourth quarter of 2017, surpassing Samsung phones.
Still according to the IMF, sales and production of smartphones represented $ 3.6 trillion (4.5%) of the entire global economy in 2017. This industry today comprises 5.7% of Chinese exportsbut the most impressive thing when we look at the Ireland, where Apple concentrates a good part of its intellectual property: exports of iPhones today represent, for the country, a quarter (!) of all its economic growth.
And not only in these two countries, no. At South Korea, it is estimated that the smartphone production chain contributed with a third of the growth of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2017. Taiwan, that contribution jumps to 40%.
Even so, the IMF notes that global demand for smartphones appears to have stabilized. Last year, 1.5 billion units were sold for the first time in history, a reduction from the previous year. Today, one in five people on the planet already has a smartphone.
via Computerworld
