Slower economic growth in China deterred many of the country's 913 million smartphone users from buying new units this year, prompting the worldwide market for smartphones to see its lowest growth rate in years, according to market analysts.

The International Data Corporation (IDC), a US-based market research organization, has released findings from a study indicating that 2015 will be first full year when the worldwide smartphone industry sees single-digit growth at 9.8 percent.

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The firm predicts that the world's smartphone manufacturers will have sold some 1.4 billion units by the end of this year, reflecting an increase of around 100 million units over the 1.3 billion smartphones sold last year.

China has been the world's biggest market for smartphones since overtaking the US in 2011, but analysts say economic uncertainty and an increasingly saturated smartphone market will continue to dampen growth in the country over the next few years.

Some signs of this year's market slowdown had already become evident by the end of the second quarter, when global smartphone sales fell by some four percent year-on-year, according to the information technology research company Gartner.

"With the smartphone market finally slowing to single digit growth, maintaining momentum will depend on several factors," says IDC program director Ryan Reith. "The main driver has been -- and will continue to be -- the success of low cost smartphones in emerging markets."

The IDC says the Middle East and Africa will see the highest growth this year, with shipments expected to increase nearly 50 percent year on year, exceeding smartphone sales in hot growth markets like India and Indonesia.

Google's Android operating system (OS) was the most popular mobile OS, powering some 81.2 percent of the smartphones sold throughout the world in 2015.  Apple's iOS followed with around 15.8 percent.  Windows Phone and other alternative platforms claimed the remaining three percent share.

The average selling price for smartphones this year was $293.  The IDC expects smartphone prices to decline to around $240 by 2019. 

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