Smartphone: Not so long ago, we wrote about falling sales of hard drives, processors and other components and systems. Among the largest chip suppliers, for example, there is a sharp drop in revenue. In addition, PC sales continued to decline.
Not surprisingly, not everything is rosy for smartphone makers. In fact, they are worse. What happened, how difficult is everything and what are the reasons for this situation? We’ll talk about that today.
Is there no place to fall below Smartphone
Smartphone sales have steadily increased over the years. When she is more active, when she is more humble. However, the fact is that growth has been remarkable. And now the reaction has come – sales are falling. According to experts from the analytical agency IDC, this fall is the strongest in the history of the smartphone market itself.
At IDC, the date of the emergence of this market is considered the announcement of the first iPhone model from Apple and the launch of this device in 2007. Thus, according to the agency, in the last quarter of 2022, sellers shipped about 300 million smartphones. That’s a lot, but compared to the same period in 2021, the drop is very significant – 18.3%. It’s not a joke to say the least.
If we take the whole year, and not just the fourth quarter, then the decrease here is not so strong, but still noticeable – 11.3%. In total, in 2022, vendors will ship 1.2 billion smartphones. All this gives analysts reason to say that the final results of smartphone shipments in 2022 are the lowest in the last ten years. Perhaps, experts say, there is still room for growth. But insignificant, moreover, in the most optimistic forecasts, positive dynamics do not exceed 2-3%.
To make matters worse, smartphone sales in the fourth quarter are generally up, not down. This is the holiday period after all, which means smartphones, televisions, laptops and other gear are being bought in droves. And it has always been like this – until 2022, which became an exception to the rule. Below is a table showing the dynamics of smartphone sales.
What about individual companies?
The market situation is more or less clear if you look at it in general terms. But what about individual manufacturers? It’s all kind of messed up here. Chinese companies suffered the most, with declines of 20% or more from the previous year.
For example, the Chinese company Xiaomi managed to sell about 153 million smartphones in one year. Last year, that number was 191 million.
Apple, in general, is doing well, but it still sells fewer smartphones. The dynamics is negative from year to year, it is about 4%.
Samsung sold 260.9 million devices instead of 272.1 million, which was last year’s number. However, the company’s overall market share increased from 20% to 21.6%, which isn’t too bad.
But worst of all, except for Xiaomi, the Chinese companies Oppo and Vivo from BBK Holding. They have a very strong decline in market share and sales.
What is the reason for this situation? The main problem is the current geopolitical situation. People are starting to skimp on electronics, preferring to cut costs or solve other problems. Many people prefer to buy used equipment instead of new.
Used devices have become very popular. On the one hand, this is good, because there is less junk mail. On the one hand, electronic equipment suppliers suffer, if not losses, then at least a significant drop in profits, which obviously affects the overall development of the industry.
But, in general, this situation is not fatal for the sector. It still affects the fact that many of us have been buying “back-up” electronics during the pandemic. So now the question of updating the hardware is not worth it. Well, a little later – everything is possible, so it remains to wait a little to understand whether the market will fall further or start to recover.
