Not long ago, Counterpoint Research published its latest report for the smartphone sales in 2022, and from it, we learned how deplorable the situation is in the industry. Today, IDC brought its report for the same niche and for the same period. According to the report, global smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) fell by 18.3% year-on-year to 300.3 million units, creating the largest single-quarter decline in history. This also led to a sharp decline of 11.3% for the whole year. This is the lowest annual shipment since 2013.
“We have never seen shipments in the holiday quarter come in lower than the previous quarter. However, weakened demand and high inventory caused vendors to cut back drastically on shipments,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team.
Judging from the data in the fourth quarter of 2022, the top five manufacturers of, Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO, collectively experienced a sharp drop.
Among them, Apple fell 14.9% year-on-year to 72.3 million units, with a market share of 24.1%, ranking first; Samsung and Xiaomi followed closely, falling 15.6% and 26.3%, respectively; OPPO fell 15.9%, and VIVO fell 18.9%.
For the whole year, Samsung and Apple fell by 4.1% and 4%, respectively, ranking the top two in the market. Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO fell by 19.8%, 22.7%, and 22.8%, respectively.
The reason for this is a sharp drop in consumer demand, inflation, and economic uncertainty, IDC said that rising inflation and heightened macro concerns continued to hamper consumer spending even more than expected and delay a possible recovery until late 2023.
“We continue to witness consumer demand dwindle as refresh rates climb past 40 months in most major markets,” said Anthony Scarsella, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “With 2022 declining more than 11% for the year, 2023 is set up to be a year of caution as vendors will rethink their portfolio of devices while channels will think twice before taking on excess inventory. However, on a positive note, consumers may find even more generous trade-in offers and promotions continuing well into 2023 as the market will think of new methods to drive upgrades and sell more devices, specifically high-end models.”
