White paper: Selfies, gesture control and the importance of differentiation on a competitive smartphone market
Smartphone sales are slowing down and manufacturers are working hard to find new features and functionality. At the same time, Millennials are driving the selfie trend further and are open to new use cases. New interaction methods like gesture control are gaining ground, enabling better selfies and easier handling, as well as a way for […]
Smartphone sales are slowing down and manufacturers are working hard to find new features and functionality. At the same time, Millennials are driving the selfie trend further and are open to new use cases. New interaction methods like gesture control are gaining ground, enabling better selfies and easier handling, as well as a way for smartphone manufacturers to differentiate new models.
The growth rate of global smartphone sales is down from 14 percent in 2015 to 5 percent in 2016 because consumers don’t see a good enough reason to upgrade to a new phone and most owners are happy to hold onto their phones longer than before. First-time smartphone buyers only make up around 10 percent of the market, which means almost everybody who wants a smartphone already has one.
Tougher competition on the smartphone market accentuates the need of differentiating features and functionality. One of the most wanted smartphone features is better cameras and the third most important smartphone function is taking photos.
Gesture control expected to be standard in smartphones
Handsfree technologies such as gesture control could help to further differentiate a phone on a highly competitive market. In fact, handsfree technology is one of the top five most wanted smartphone features and many high-end smartphones already have camera functions with gesture control. Besides taking selfies, a driving force towards making gesture control a standard in all smartphones is the interaction development within Augmented and Virtual Reality, where gesture control is expected to become one of the main interaction methods.
Millennials love selfies
Millennials (born 1982 – 2004) are the real selfie enthusiasts, 85 percent of them take selfies. Over time this demographic group will be the dominating consumers of smartphones, and they are ready for new selfie use cases, such as verifying their identity and authorize purchases. In fact, consumers overall are ready to embrace selfies as a tool for banking, shopping, healthcare and more.
The selfie phenomenon is growing and will play an even bigger role in coming years where gesture control will be an important interaction method.
