A recent report by IDC Smartphone Tracker revealed a very low number of smartphone shipments smart phones Worldwide for the fourth quarter of 2022, the market shrank 18.3% to 300.3 million shipments.
All of the top five brands experienced a double-digit decline year-on-year compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and the total number represents the largest quarterly decline, according to the Indian GSM website.
The significant decline in shipments in the fourth quarter contributed to an annual contraction of 11.3% compared to 2021 numbers. A total of 1.21 billion smartphones were shipped in 2022 compared to 1.36 billion in 2021, and focusing on the preliminary numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple led market once more with 72.3 million shipments and a market share of 24.1%.
Samsung came in second with 58.2 million phones shipped and a market share of 19.4%. Then came Xiaomi in third place with 33.2 million shipments and 11% of the market. The company saw the largest drop in shipments compared to its values from Q4 2021 at -26.3%.
Combined shipment figures for 2022 show Samsung is at the top with 260.9 million units and a market share of 21.6%. While Apple ranked second with 226.4 million, 18.8% of the market, while Xiaomi secured 153.1 million shipments, a 12.7% cut of the entire market.
Commenting on the drop in shipping values, IDC analysts note that dwindling consumer spending and rising inflation levels were the main reasons for lower demand for new devices, and users are holding on to devices longer with the refresh rate cycle going up to 40 months (3.3 years) for some users.
Looking ahead, IDC predicts that vendors will try to rethink their hardware portfolios while retail channels should do a better job of allocating their existing inventory.
