Global smartphone market shrinks by 11% in Q1 2022 – Report
Smartphone manufacturers witnessed a downturn in sales in the first quarter of this year as shipments declined by 11 per cent.
This is according to the latest report by Canalys, a global smartphones analyst company that monitors shipments by device makers.
Highlights of the report
- The report shows that the total smartphones shipped by Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and other vendors in the first quarter stood at 311.2 million, a decline from 347 million recorded in the same period last year.
- It further reveals that Apple was the only top smartphone maker that saw a year-on-year increase in shipments in the last quarter, while Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, and others saw steep declines in their respective mobile smartphones.
- Apple recorded 8 per cent increase compared to the same quarter last year, as it shipped 56.5 million iPhones, which pushed up its market share to 18 per cent.
- Samsung, which leads with a 24 per cent market share shipped 73.7 million devices in the period under review, but that was a 4 per cent decline compared with the 76.5 million it recorded in the same period last year.
- Both Transsion and Xiaomi shipments fell over 30% year on year in the Middle East and Africa in Q1, predominantly due to supply pressure at the low end.
What Canalys is saying
Commenting on the report, Canalys Analyst, Toby Zhu said: “The Chinese market caused nearly half of the worldwide decline, mainly due to seasonal weakness. Major vendors suffered sequential declines, except for HONOR, which took first place in China for the first time since it spun out from Huawei 18 months ago.”
“But a strict pandemic control policy has resulted in lockdowns in major cities in China, casting a shadow over the consumer market in the short term. Moreover, disruptions in component production and logistics will affect most vendors’ Q2 shipments, both in mainland China and worldwide,” he added.
Canalys Research Analyst, Runar Bjørhovde, said: “North America was the only region to grow this quarter, showing the strength of the consumer market. While its solid performance was particularly driven by demand for Apple’s iPhone 13 series and Samsung’s newly launched Galaxy S22 family, vendors such as Lenovo, TCL and Google continued to make an impressive effort, taking over carrier slots that previously belonged to LG.”
“Vendors will be testing their capabilities in the next three to six months to navigate a challenging macro environment,” he added.
