Meeker predicts that Apple's iPhone sales will decline by end of 2016
Apple’s iPhone sales are set to take a downward turn by the end of the year, according to predictions made by venture capitalist Mary Meeker in her annual report on internet trends. She compared the sales of the smartphone with those of Amazon’s Echo, and while the latter was set to go through the roof, iPhone figures were on the wane. The data suggests consumers are rapidly moving away from mobiles and towards voice-activated tech, with some analysts predicting up to half of all searches will be made vocally by 2020.

Mary Meeker dropped her much-hailed annual Internet Trends report this morning. And one trend in particular presents a challenge no tech company can really escape: growth is slowing.

Last year, Meeker noted in her report that global Internet user growth was slowing. This year, it’s actually flat. And global smartphone growth is flat, too.

Three billion of the 7 billion people on the planet are now online, according to Meeker’s 2016 report. But year-over-year, growth in the number of people connected to the Internet has remained consistently at 9 percent. The one bright spot is India, which has seen 40 percent year-over-year Internet user growth compared to 33 percent one year ago. India now has 277 million citizens online, passing the US to become the second-largest online population just behind China.

China and India have also grown to become the two largest smartphone markets in the world, collectively capturing 52 percent of the global smartphone market as of 2015. That’s significant, especially since global smartphone sales have now leveled off after experiencing meteoric growth over the past five years. According to Meeker, the global smartphone market grew a measly 10 percent year-over-year in 2015 compared to 28 percent in 2014.

It's no wonder the global smartphone market is now flat: everyone who wants a smartphone probably already has one. Still, according to Meeker’s report, people in some parts of the world are willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths to acquire one: In Ethiopia, for instance, the average cost of a mobile device is $262, more than 47 percent of a citizen’s average annual income. But phones sell there, just like almost everywhere else.