Average smartphone storage is expected to exceed 80GB by 2020

The latest data suggests the days of red-hot smartphone growth are over and that sluggish growth or contraction is likely in many saturated markets. — AFP Relaxnews

Market research company Counterpoint Research reports that the average storage of smartphones will reach 83GB by year-end, with iPhone growing faster than Android.

This is an increase of 32% year-on-year and twice the global average of 43GB at the end 2017.

Its Research analyst Sujeong Lim says the average storage capacity of iPhones are 166GB while Android smartphones stand at 68GB.

The reason iPhones have a higher average is because they don't feature an expansion slot like Android smartphones.

However, Android leads when it comes to storage size for flagship smartphones.

Lim notes that Apple doubled its internal storage from 256GB for the iPhone 7 series in 2016 to 512GB with the iPhone XS in 2018.

In comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 launched with 512GB storage in late 2018 and then it was doubled with the Galaxy S10+ several months later.

Now that the Galaxy S10+ has introduced 1TB Flash storage memory, other manufacturers are likely to push Flash storage higher in their upcoming flagship models, she says.

“Why do smartphones need increasingly large capacities? The answer is in the amount of data that users capture every day through their smartphone camera,” she says, adding that photo sizes and games have increased in size exponentially.

She adds that the commercialisation of 5G means high-capacity storage is essential to support high-speed communication, AI technology, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality and high-definition content.