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Smartphone shoppers said 'no thank you' to last year's boring, expensive lineup
Even the holidays couldn't save a disappointing year
It's no secret that the smartphone world is in a bit of a slump these days. Despite a rebound in 2021 after a pandemic-fueled nosedive, sales disappointed manufacturers across the globe again last year, albeit with higher prices helping to make up a difference in revenue. Anyone who hoped the holidays would help save 2022 for the industry is, unfortunately, out of luck, as last quarter saw the sharpest decline for sales in smartphone history.
Apple and Samsung are on top of a declining smartphone market as 2023 begins
Stay-in-place strategies are seen to be popular this year
We may have written up a boatload of deals for the best Android phones out there last year, but that didn't change the fact that those phones have risen out of reach from many would-be buyers. All of us have had to suffer this seesaw of a global economy with chip shortages one day and intensified inflation the next. Along for the ride with consumers are smartphone makers: while the market showed some signs of growth, global revenues saw a 3% year-over-year decline in Q3 2022. We're now learning that the slope has steepened for the holiday season.
Price hikes helped OEMs arrest sliding smartphone revenue in Q3 2022
Smartphones are 10% costlier than this time last year
Some exciting smartphone launches are coming up just around the corner in 2023, with high-profile devices like the Samsung Galaxy S23 series and OnePlus 11 already lined up. There's a lot riding on some of those handsets, as looking back at smartphone sales across 2022, companies recorded a steady decline in revenue during Q1 and even Q2 2022, mostly fueled by the worldwide economic chaos, component shortages, and political turmoil. Thankfully, Q3 2022 broke this trend, allowing companies to stop their performance slumps.
Google's selling a whole bunch more Pixels now than it was a year ago
Manufacturers are still struggling to fill the void LG left in the budget segment
Despite stiff competition from Apple, Android smartphones remain strong sellers in the North American market, and there's plenty of room for all the big smartphone brands to fight for their piece of the pie. Google's been slowly working to increase its own share, and we've seen more and more people choosing a Pixel over other options. Now the latest Canalys market report sheds some light on Q2 shipments, and shows Google clocking some impressive growth.
Between the COVID pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and devastating weather events driven by human-accelerated climate change, we're looking at inflation on steroids all over the world and not-so-quiet talk of a recession. You may be among the many people juggling a tougher budget these days with no room for a new smartphone. So, you might not be surprised, then, to see that new smartphone shipments are trending down for the second quarter in a row.
Global smartphone shipments tanked in Q1 2022, because *gestures at everything*
A bevy of reasons might be at play, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine
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.
Samsung leads Q1 smartphone shipments as the industry faces a sharp decrease overall
Inflation and post-holiday demand result in a rough first quarter for phone manufacturers
The world of Android is growing ever smaller by the day — especially in North America, where only a few manufacturers remain to battle against Apple. Although last year's smartphone sales represented a rebound over a disappointing 2020, it seems like the first quarter of 2022 has started this year on the wrong foot, with bad news for nearly every smartphone manufacturer — except one.
Only Samsung sold more smartphones than Xiaomi last quarter, with Apple dropping to 3rd place
Jumping in the gap left by Huawei
With former rising star Huawei out of the way due to US sanctions, another Chinese manufacturer is emerging to take over the smartphone market — Xiaomi. The company could grow its shipments by a whopping 83% in the second quarter of 2021, making it the vendor with the second highest market share at 17%. It's only narrowly surpassed by Samsung with a share of 19%.
You didn't buy a Samsung Galaxy S20 this spring, research finds
Costly phones will make it hard for people to get with 5G
Research house Canalys tracked 31.9 million smartphone shipments in the U.S. for the second quarter, down 5% from last year. Diverging plotlines between the novel coronavirus pandemic and the trade war with China are putting intense pressures on the industry in terms of cost and product strategy.
The smartphone market is absolutely foundering due to coronavirus, unsurprisingly
Nobody wants to spend money on a phone during a pandemic
The coronavirus has led to lockdowns all over the world and left many people with less to no income or in fear of a recession. Combine that with closed factories, and you have a recipe for economic impacts rippling through all industries. The smartphone market is not immune to these effects, either, and worldwide shipments have fallen by 13% year-over-year (YOY) due to coronavirus. Companies moved only 272 million units in Q1 2020, which is the lowest level since 2013.
Ever since the global smartphone market started to decline back in 2017, it has stubbornly remained stagnant. Surprisingly, the trend has finally reversed itself as the global smartphone market has managed to eke out a 1% growth in Q3 2019, just barely reversing the two-year-long decline. The resurgence was led by market share leaders Samsung and Huawei, who experienced double-digit annual growth rates from Q3 2018. On the other hand, two of the top five smartphone vendors — Apple and Xiaomi — experienced single-digit declines in market share, while the number five Oppo saw some minor growth.
The smartphone market isn't what it used to be anymore. By now, pretty much every person in North America owns at least one of these devices, and combined with mostly iterative improvements and slowing innovation from manufacturers, demand has naturally decreased. Thus, shipments in Q1 2019 are down to 36.4 million, 18 percent less than last year's Q1 record-breaking 44.4 million. This is the steepest fall ever recorded.
Huawei expects to overtake Samsung and Apple, become world's largest smartphone manufacturer in 2019
Huawei is on a success rocket with consumers around (most of) the world. In a few years, the company turned from the cheap smartphone maker we barely looked at to a flagship machine. That strategy has paid off. Once out of the top ranking of smartphone brands, it now sits comfortably in third place, behind Samsung and Apple, growing while their numbers continue to shrink. But Huawei is not content about that bronze medal, it wants gold and it aims to get it soon.
Sales figures for the second quarter of the year are in and it would be fair to say the smartphone industry is in rude health. According to research from Strategy Analytics, global shipments saw solid growth, up 6% year-on-year to 360.4 million. While Samsung and Apple predictably held on to first and second spots in the manufacturer rankings, Chinese challengers Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo recorded significant gains as they worked to close the gap.