What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Cell Phones Brands by Skai

What might be the biggest annual event in the cell phone industry, Apple will announce its fall lineup of new products this week, including the new iPhone 13. 

While the details of the next iPhone aren’t known yet, according to MacRumors.com:

The 2021 iPhone lineup will look similar to the 2020 iPhone lineup, with four devices in sizes that include 5.4-inches, 6.1-inches, and 6.7-inches, with two of the iPhones being higher-end “Pro” models and two positioned as lower-cost, more affordable devices.

One of the most significant new trends in the last few years for cell phones has to be foldable devices that dramatically increase the size of the screen. Virtually all major cell phone manufacturers are experimenting with this technology.

Here are some rather interesting phone accessories we’ve noticed recently:

• For people who don’t think Bluetooth headphones are practical enough, try the Cell Mate. It’s a headset for your regular cell phone with the benefits listed as having to charge your headphones or have to sync them while driving. 
• Of course, getting the latest iPhone is sometimes considered a status symbol, so why not go all-in and pair your new iPhone 13 with the LUX IPHONE X INGOT 250 phone case. It’s made of solid gold and has an $80,000 price tag. 
• Germs are on everyone’s minds these days. If you’re a germaphobe, you might want to check out the PhoneSoap 3, a UV phone sanitizer that reportedly “kills 99.99% of the bacteria and viruses that thrive on your phone and other small gear.”
• You may have seen this on TikTok: a frying pan phone case. We don’t know why this has become popular, but it’s another viral sensation.

Insights for Cell Phones Brands: What’s Hot, Not, & Next

Cell phones are one of those rare consumer electronics products that just about everyone owns. At the latest count, 5.28 Billion people (66.92% of the world’s population) have a mobile device. Could there be a more competitive product in the consumer electronics market? With so much demand and plenty of big-name competition, it’s essential for cell phone brands to understand buyer preferences.

Consumer and market intelligence platforms like Skai are increasingly used by cell phone brands looking to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the category in real-time and get ahead of the latest trends.

Skai collects more data than anyone else relevant to cell phones (social reviews, product listings, ratings, reviews, patents, etc.) so that brands don’t miss a thing. Then, we apply natural language processing so that it’s easy to extract what is happening in the cell phone category and why — and what will happen in the future. And we visualize the data in a way that makes it easy to understand for anyone from Insights, Marketing, Brand, Product Innovation, and more.

Our Cell Phones, Computers, Tablets category includes data from over:

• 214,000+ products
• 1,500,000+ consumer discussions
• 1,300,000+ product reviews
• 35,000+ key opinion leader posts
• 233,000+ patents

So what is the data showing us? Let’s take a look!

What’s Hot

• The Built-in Camera is a key feature of today’s smartphones and one of the leading areas of innovation that manufacturers focus on with their newest devices. This trend continues with a 154% growth in new products mentioning Built-in Cameras and 9,678 released last year. 
• Samsung, by far, has the most cell phone products on Amazon.com with 1,132. Behind Samsung are LG, Motorola, and Nokia.
• Processing Speed and Battery Life are the most represented cell phone product benefits on BestBuy.com.

What’s Not

• Audio Jacks are starting to decline in popularity, with most audio accessories (i.e., headphones/earbuds, speakers, etc.) now connecting wirelessly. Product reviews of cell phones mentioning Audio Jacks are only up 17% from the previous year.
• Energy Efficiency is surprisingly underrepresented in this category, given how much people complain about their phone battery life. Just 1.9% of cell phone products mention this benefit, and only 0.9% of new cell phone patents in the last five years contain the term.
• Fingerprint Readers within cell phones may have peaked as an innovation. There were 18% fewer cell phone products mentioning Fingerprint Readers released in the last 12 months compared to the previous year.

What’s Next

• Image Stabilization is a feature that people are buzzing about. There has been a 371% growth in the last year of cell phone social media posts mentioning Image Stabilization.
• Charging Speed seems to be the answer for consumers looking for more battery life out of their phones. 19.6% of all cell phone products currently on the market highlight this benefit in their product descriptions.
• Sweat Resistant is a trend we’ve seen growing in athletic apparel for some time, and now it’s hitting the cell phone category. Not only has there been a 150% year-over-year growth in Sweat Resistant cell phone products, but social media posts mentioning this benefit with cell phones has increased by 3125% over the same period.

Top Cell Phone Brands (by number of products in the market)

The Cell Phone trend to watch: shatter-resistant

It’s likely that every person reading this has accidentally cracked their cell phone screen at one point or another—you may even be reading this article from a cracked screen. 

The latest research shows that a staggering 50 million phone screens every year crack every year! That’s 5,761 screens crack every hour (or two every second). Sometimes even the most responsible people cannot make sure they don’t drop or knock their phones.

So, it may not be tough to understand why cell phone products mentioning Shatter-resistant are up 850%—the highest product innovation that Skai has tracked. Additionally, social media posts mentioning this feature are up 200% over the previous year, and Shatter-resistant product reviews are up 71% during the same period. 

To find out what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s next in your industry, please reach out today to schedule a brief demo of Skai’’s market intelligence platform.

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