Smartphone market suffers strong decline

The global smartphone market experienced a pronounced contraction of 9 per cent year-on-year during the third quarter of 2022, something which has been primarily attributed to a dent in demand, according to a report by industry analysts Canalys.

Despite the segment’s decline, it still managed to record sales of 297.8 million units, with Samsung managing to hold on to first place with 64.1 million units being sold during this time.

US manufacturer Apple was the only leading vendor which managed to record a year-on-year rise in sales, growing by 8 per cent during the third quarter, and shipping a total of 53 million units.

“Performance of the high-end segment was the only highlight this quarter,” Canalys Research Analyst Runar Bjorhovde said, who noted that Apple reached its highest third-quarter market share yet, driven by both the iPhone 13 and newly launched iPhone 14 series.

“The popularity of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, in particular, will contribute to a higher ASP and stable revenue for Apple,” the analyst added.

In terms of the Android side of the market, Bjorhovde explained that Samsung had recently refreshed its foldable device range and increased its marketing initiatives significantly to generate interest and demand for its new flagship phones.

“Mid-to-low-end demand has been hit making it challenging for vendors to navigate in a competitive segment,” Bjorhovde said, adding that “Xiaomi managed to leverage its global scale with a refreshed product line to offset declines in its home market. OPPO and vivo are still significantly impacted by the drop in the China market but have both shown small signs of recovery”.

Meanwhile, Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia highlighted the fact that Europe and the Asia Pacific region experienced much better sales during the third quarter when compared to the rest of the world.

“Europe avoided a significant drop helped by a spike in shipments to Russia. Here, Chinese vendors leveraged short-term opportunities to stock up the channel in a market that has been undersupplied during previous quarters,” Chaurasia said.

“APAC had a huge variation between different markets, but sequentially improving demand in India, Indonesia and the Philippines helped the region stabilize its performance. Carrier-dominated markets such as North America and Latin America presented increasingly cautious sentiments on managing inventory before heading into big holiday seasons, contrasting a much more optimistic view in Q3 last year,” the analyst concluded.