OUR International Data Corporation (IDC), a company specializing in market intelligence, consulting services and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets, published this Wednesday (25) report on smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022. And I have to say, things are not so perfect in the world of mobile phones.

The document shows a drop in global smartphone shipments by 18.3% year on year to 300.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The smartphone market will shrink in the fourth quarter of 2022

The drop marks the biggest decline in a quarter and contributed to growth of 11.3% in 2022.

Last year still ended with shipments of 1.21 billion units, representing the lowest annual shipments since 2013 due to a significant decline in consumer demand, inflation and economic uncertainty.

“We have never seen holiday quarter deliveries lower than the previous quarter. However, weakening demand and high inventories have forced suppliers to drastically reduce shipments.“, – said Nabila Popal, director of research tracker around the world from IDK. “Strong sales and promotions during the quarter helped deplete existing inventory rather than boost shipments. Suppliers are becoming more careful with shipping and scheduling as they refocus on profitability. Even Apple, which has seemed unresponsive so far, has suffered setbacks in its supply chain due to unforeseen lockdowns at its main factories in China. This holiday quarter tells us that rising inflation and rising macro concerns continue to weigh on consumer spending even more than expected and delay any potential recovery until the end of 2023..”

Well, maybe this is new for someone, not so much for someone, but who is ahead – even with a fall in 2022 – that an Apple with 72.3 million shipments and a market share of 24.1%; Samsung second place with 58.2 million smartphones sold and a market share of 19.4%; xiaomi ranked third with 33.2 million shipments and 11% of the market, but the company saw a drop in shipments from -26.3% in Q4 2021. Oppo (25.3 million) and alive (22.9 million) round out the top five podium. These figures refer to the fourth half of 2022.

As for the whole year from 2022 to Samsung proved to be more effective in attracting the attention of its customers with sales of 260.9 million units and a market share of 21.6%; an Apple in second place with 226.4 million and 18.8% of the market; xiaomi ranked third with 153.1 million shipments and a 12.7% share of the total market; Oppo (103.3 million) and alive (99 million) rounded out the top five, with two companies posting the biggest year-on-year declines of -22.7% and -22.8%, respectively.

According to IDC, the reason for this drop in demand for devices may be due to a reduction in consumer spending, in addition to rising inflation. Another habit that has become more common and has contributed to falling sales is that users keep their devices longer, with the update cycle jumping to 40 months. IDC predicts that vendors will try to rethink their device catalog while retail channels will have to do a better job of allocating existing inventory.

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Source: IDK

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