Thailand's electronic devices market in 2015 will continue to experience strong growth, with smartphones seeing the strongest increase, says IT research firm IDC Thailand.
The bright prospects will be further boosted by the strong migration from 2G to 3G mobile networks as well as a faster handset replacement cycle, said Nutchanon Boonsorn, IDC Thailand's associate market analyst for client devices.
Jarit: PC market to face little growth
"Wearable computing devices are another emerging growth market, expected to gain momentum in the Thai market by 2017, thanks to a greater selection of devices," he said.
However, Mr Nutchanon said the local tablet market saw a dip in popularity last year as smartphones, especially large-display handsets, have eaten into their market share. The Thai tablet market will continue to see a downward trend this year.
The personal computer market in Thailand, meanwhile, will see growth of only 3% during 2015-19.
Mr Nutchanon noted that Thailand is Asean's second-largest smartphone market, trailing only Indonesia.
"The local smartphone market's size this year will be more than twice that of last year's," he said.
Sales of smartphones in Thailand are expected to reach 18 million units this year, rising to 24 million by 2019, compared with 8 million units in 2013.
The Android-based mobile operating system will still dominate the local mobile phone market, accounting for at least 90% of the market, said Mr Nutchanon.
Jarit Sidhu, IDC's senior market analyst, said he believed the local PC market would not die but should see flat to slight growth over the next few years.
The number of tablet brands has fallen to below 10, down from 18 brands in the past two years.
PC sales in Thailand are expected to reach 2.5 million units in 2015, about the same as last year.
Mr Jarit also said the local wearables market was expected to gain momentum within three years, with sales running into millions of units, up from 3,000-5,000 units per quarter this year.
Smart watches will see an increase in popularity as they can support third-party apps that provide a greater variety of functions.
Currently, there are fewer than 10 brands available in the wearable device market.
Mr Jarit said the retail, heathcare and insurance sectors could adopt wearable devices to increase sales opportunities and personalise their services.
IDC estimates the wearable devices market in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan this year will reach 10 million units, up from 5 million last year.
The figure will top 40 million units by 2019, he said.