By 2018, Gartner expects the ASP for a basic and a utility phone to be $78 and $25, respectively. Some low-cost smartphones are expected to reach approximately $35 unsubsidized by year-end 2014 (compared with the $50 lowest entry-level smartphones seen in 2013).
This is having an effect on the competitive landscape of smartphone vendors, as Chinese brands rapidly grow share, putting pressure on the Tier 1 smartphone vendors.
As feature phones decline, and data use expands in the developing economies, smartphone needs will expand, but only as prices permit.
Furthermore, in the developing markets, high-end smartphone shipments are expected to slow down, as the enhanced features of those phones have less and less mainstream value to most buyers.
The other factor at work is subsidies or sponsorships that reduce the cost of the devices. As the mobile phone becomes more and more of the "on-ramp" for purchases and the mainstream method for making payments, subsidies and sponsorships should increase.
By 2018, more than half of all B2E mobile apps will be created by enterprise business analysts using code less tools
Conventional mobile application development platforms (MADPs) are rapidly introducing graphical tools for the design of screens, workflow and data sources to reduce the scope of possible projects.
The use of codeless tools for the rapid development of straightforward projects by IT and enterprise business analysts will become an alternative to outsourcing, limiting the use of development partners to more-advanced projects.
IT departments that provide clean APIs for internal applications and also support codeless tools will create a framework that enables and accelerates the growth of reliable digital business. Those that resist will be bypassed and promote shadow IT.