shipments decreased smart phones nearly 20% year-on-year during the recent holiday period, as consumer demand fell amid inflation and economic uncertainty. It’s the “largest drop ever in a single quarter,” according to IDC, and it contributed to 2022 having the lowest annual shipment of smartphones since 2013, according to theverge report.
While there were still 1.21 billion smartphones shipped in 2022, that is down Shipments during the holiday quarter very important from the previous quarter for the first time ever. “We’ve never seen shipments in the holiday quarter lower than in the previous quarter,” says Nabila Popal, director of research at IDC. However, weak demand and high inventories have caused sellers to cut their shipments significantly
Smartphone sellers are being cautious about shipments, according to IDC, as holiday sales and promotions hog existing stock rather than new shipments, all pointing to weak consumer demand, and the fact that modern smartphones have reached their limit in terms of capacity, with the The older models did the job pretty well.
IDC says it sees people waiting up to 40 months after purchase to update their phones “in most major markets.” We’ve seen this trend for years now, and with AT&T and Verizon warning back in 2019 that upgrade rates were at an all-time low thanks to Fewer customers have upgraded their devices. The smartphone market has matured and become saturated in many countries, and there are fewer reasons to upgrade to the latest smartphone every two years.
While all major smartphone vendors’ shipments are declining year-over-year, Apple retains the top spot with Samsung in second place, and both saw shipments drop by 15% according to IDC, which we’ll likely see reflected in Apple’s earnings results next week. Samsung recently suffered from falling profits after demand for electronic devices stalled in the most recent quarter.
A weaker smartphone market may not be good for industry giants like Samsung and Apple, but it may be good for consumers looking for bargains, says Anthony Scarcella, director of research at IDC. 2023 as the market will think of new ways to drive upgrades and sell more devices, specifically the high-end models.”
Notably, IDC is the International Data Corporation (IDC) a premier global provider of market information, advisory services and events for the information technology, communications and consumer technology markets.
