14 DAY TRIAL // The fourth quarter of 2022 brought a major sales decline for phone makers across the world, with the market declining no less than 18.3 percent year over year.
This means sales in the phone market totaled 300.3 million units, with market intelligence firm IDC saying this represents the largest-ever decline in a single quarter.
Eventually, the fourth quarter contributed to total 2022 sales of 1.21 billion units, which itself is a disappointing figure. This is the lowest annual shipment total since 2013.
Apple topped the sales chart in the fourth quarter with 72.3 million sold units, but this is down significantly from 85 million units sold in the same quarter of 2021. Samsung was far behind with 58.2 million units (versus 69 million units in Q4 2021), while Xiaomi’s Q4 performance dropped from 45 million sold units in 2021 to 33.2 million units last year.
“We have never seen shipments in the holiday quarter come in lower than the previous quarter. However, weakened demand and high inventory caused vendors to cut back drastically on shipments,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team.
“Heavy sales and promotions during the quarter helped deplete existing inventory rather than drive shipment growth. Vendors are increasingly cautious in their shipments and planning while realigning their focus on profitability. Even Apple, which thus far was seemingly immune, suffered a setback in its supply chain with unforeseen lockdowns at its key factories in China. What this holiday quarter tells us is that rising inflation and growing macro concerns continue to stunt consumer spending even more than expected and push out any possible recovery to the very end of 2023.”
IDC says the mobile industry was originally projected to recover 2.8 percent this year, but due to the massive drop recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022, the target might no longer be reached.