Although vaccines have allowed some of us to return to a semblance of normality, we've spent the last two years in absolute global economic chaos due to the ongoing pandemic and global supply shortages. And it's looking like market normality isn't quite back yet. According to experts, the global smartphone market is continuing to plunge, as global smartphone shipments are even lower than last year.

According to research from IDC and Counterpoint, shipments in Q1 2022 notably declined compared to Q1 2021 — IDC is talking about an 8.9% drop, while Counterpoint is looking at a less drastic but still noteworthy 7%. Things looked like they were rebounding last holiday, but the general outlook isn't as pretty as we thought.

And unfortunately, none of this can be boiled down to one simple reason. Part of it is your typical pandemic and chip shortage woes, which have not only affected the industry side of things, but have also had an impact on people's pockets, with growing worries about inflation and economic instability. We also have another major global event at play — Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not only the biggest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, but it has also brought significant instability and uncertainty to the region. The impact right now is still relatively minimized, as Eastern Europe only accounts for a small chunk of the market, but there's the potential for things to go south very quickly if it lingers too long or if it escalates further.

While most smartphone manufacturers saw shipment drops along these lines, there are some lucky outliers that managed to stand out. Notably, Honor is managing to rebound as it rebuilds its name following its separation from Huawei, while Realme is seeing success as a result of its overseas expansion efforts.

So yes, normality might be slowly coming back in some places, but it's far from back in the smartphone ecosystem — and it might be some time until things fully rebound.