Overview:
The global smartphone market remained under pressure in Q4 2022 with shipments declining by 19% YoY to the lowest level for a holiday quarter since 2013, even as it grew QoQ slightly to 302.6 million units. The cost-of-living crisis, labor market shortages, and a decline in consumers’ purchasing power resulted in double-digit declines YoY in the shipments of each of the top five smartphone players. The shipments for the full year 2022 also declined to 1.23 billion units, the lowest since 2013. The war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures, economic uncertainty and macroeconomic headwinds kept the consumer sentiment weak in 2022 while smartphone users reduced the frequency of their purchases.
Apple was the only one that performed reasonably well in Q4 2022. Its share of iPhone shipments could have been even higher if not for the production issues caused by the COVID-19 breakout at the Zhengzhou factory, which produces the vast majority of Pro series volumes. Apple will continue to exceed the market expectation as the demand for high-end iPhones remains strong, as seen during the recent market contraction.
Foldable device forecast of Samsung for 2023 is lowered again. New foldable device launch at global market from Chinese OEM will have a negative effect to the sales number in the short term. But new product will help the market to grow eventually.
In this report, we forecast the shipment of key smartphone models by major OEMs – Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Oneplus, Motorola, Google, and Sony – until Q4 2024 and it focuses on giving a detailed view of quarterly flagship shipments globally.
Published Date: March 2023
