Global smartphone shipments plummeted in the fourth quarter of 2022 — generally a great quarter for holiday shopping — due to the weak global economy and weak consumer demand, according to IDC.
Electronics companies shipped 300.3 million phones in the October-December quarter, which represents a year-on-year drop of 18.3%. This is the largest decline in history in a single quarter.
In 2022, a total of 1.21 billion smartphones were soldrepresenting the lowest annual total since 2013 “due to significantly lower consumer demand, inflation and economic uncertainties”according to IDC.
“We have never seen shipments in the christmas quarter be lower than the previous quarter. However, weaker demand and high inventories caused sellers to drastically reduce shipments.said Nabila Popal, director of research at IDC.
Manzana maintained its position as the world’s leading telephone manufacturer. The US tech giant sold 72.3 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, 14.9% less than in the same period of the previous year, according to IDC. Apple’s market share was 24.1%. The decline came despite Apple releasing its latest iPhone 14 models ahead of the crucial holiday quarter.
Apple was faced with a series of supply chain issues in the December quarter, after the world’s largest iPhone manufacturing plant, located in Zhengzhou, China, was affected by a Covid outbreak and by the workers’ protests.
samsungthe second largest maker of smartphones, posted a year-on-year drop in shipments of 15.6%up to 58.2 million units.
The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi ranked third. It sold 33.2 million units in the fourth quarter of the year, which represents an interannual decrease of 26.3%. It was the biggest decline among the top five smartphone makers, which also include Chinese Oppo and Vivo.