Not even the holiday rush could help the smartphone market

[AlphaX]

What just happened? It's no secret that the tech industry has seen its fair share of struggles following recent inflation and economic issues. Despite this, smartphone manufacturers hoped the problems would iron themselves out during the holidays. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

A new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) covers overall smartphone shipments for both Q4 2022 and 2022 as a whole. According to the results, Q4 2022 demonstrated the worst decline for a single quarter year-over-year. In Q4 2021, manufacturers moved approximately 367.3 million smartphones. In Q4 2022, the number barely stretched past 300 million, clocking in at just 300.3 million shipments.

The numbers aren't too promising in yearly terms, either. In 2021, an impressive 1.36 billion smartphones were distributed worldwide. In 2022, the number of smartphones shipped was only 1.21 billion, the lowest amount of yearly shipments recorded by the IDC since 2013.

Despite other industries facing similar problems due to inflation and looming economic issues, the smartphone business hadn't been noticeably hindered until now.

These numbers were unpredictable and unforeseen by the IDC, according to research director Nabila Popal. The director believes a leading cause is "weakened demand and high inventory," which in turn led manufacturers to cut back on shipments.

A second leading reason for the decline in sales is the increased average time consumers are holding onto their smartphones. Anthony Scarsella, another research director for the IDC, claims refresh rates are climbing "past 40 months in most major markets." This could be partially due to two mobile carriers, Verizon and AT&T, raising phone plan lengths to 36 months in recent years.

Scarsella further notes that this could be a good time for consumers to take advantage and upgrade, since phone trade-ins and promotions are expected to be more generous "continuing well into 2023." Sellers will likely attempt to find any way to push upgrades and new devices, especially higher-end models, as the year moves forward.

Samsung's latest earnings report showed its lowest quarterly profit in eight years, and it's expected that Apple will reveal much of the same in its own report next week. Both Samsung and Apple saw shipment numbers drop by about 15 percent.

Overall, the IDC believes its initial 2.8 percent recovery expectation is likely "in jeopardy," as there aren't many signs of the declining demand ceasing until "the very end of 2023." Sadly, it appears that manufacturers could be in for yet another rough year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97400-not-even-holiday-rush-could-help-smartphone-market.html

 

[p51d007]

Smartphones are "good enough" for about 99% of the people who use them. There is only so much you can do as far as design, to a candy bar slab of glass, plastic & metal.
The folding phones are a different design, but in the global recession, who wants to toss away 1500-2000 dollars on a folding phone with a pretty easy to scratch screen (not to mention the crease) when things like utilities, fuel, food are so expensive.

 

[Vulcanproject]

What? Unforeseen slowing of sales? The lack of significant advances in technical performance all round from camera to processor to battery life compared to ten years ago has dropped off a cliff. Of course it has, because noticeable gains are harder and costs to attain them steepen. Are these the same people that think economic growth is forever?

Every shiny new generation was a perceptible improvement to the end user. Now it's blasé to have three cameras, 5G, a high res screen and a processor that can crush everything most people do out of the park. All on a $300 phone. So you don't need next year's model when last year's is more than good enough.

 

[Gastec]

"Fix" it with some more planned obsolescence.

 

[Loli Pop Carbon]

I'm good with my Note 10+ for maybe another 3-4 years. It's still blazing fast for what I need.

I'm glad smartphone market has matured to the point where it's unnecessary to upgrade every 2-3 years

 

[Kashim]

They're still selling over 100 million phones a month even after this so called decline, but it's never enough. That's still well over a billion phones sold per year. When will this insanity end? I mean, if it was up to Apple and Samsung they'd have you buy a brand new thousand dollar phone each month and they would still complain about not making enough profits.

In my opinion, if your phone is less than 3 years old and you're buying a new one you're basically just wasting money. My phone is 5 years old now and still does everything I need, and I have no reason to buy a new one.

 

[d5aqoep]

Stop pricing your phones at $999 and up and reduce prices by 50% and see demand creep up.

Stop charging $300 $600 for 256GB storage increments. NAND is cheap these days. When I can buy 1TB 7000 Mbps Nvme for $100, shameless companies like Apple, Samsung charge $300 or even $1000 more for 1 or 2 TB models of phones or laptops. The NAND they use is also lowest Tier 1500 Mbps.

In short, customers are not buying because the VALUE is just isn’t there and prefer using older devices

 

[toooooot]

Have you not seen new samsung phone prices?
They need to make more attractive like flagman devices for mid tier prices sacrificing few things but keeping good battery and camera.
If market keeps falling it is a good thing, for us.

 

[emmzo]

They're still selling over 100 million phones a month even after this so called decline, but it's never enough. That's still well over a billion phones sold per year. When will this insanity end? I mean, if it was up to Apple and Samsung they'd have you buy a brand new thousand dollar phone each month and they would still complain about not making enough profits.

In my opinion, if your phone is less than 3 years old and you're buying a new one you're basically just wasting money. My phone is 5 years old now and still does everything I need, and I have no reason to buy a new one.

Yeah, but they'll force you through upgrading OS. Your phone will not be "supported" and your apps will no longer work etc. If not for this, I'd still be using my iPhone 6, nothing wrong with it. The truth is, most people could use a 10 year old phone no problem for what they do everyday, browse, check mail, Facebook, play some shitty game, but no, they want the latest, because "look at me!".

 

[Axeia]

I think the prices may have finally reached a point (especially with the current depression/inflation) where the majority of people are giving it some thought before splurging on a new phone.

Good, I hope it's the new norm. I never understood why so many upgraded so often while doing so little with their new phones that actually benefits from it. Processing power for the non-gamers has been fine for a long time now. I'm guessing the lack of sales is coinciding with camera tech having reached a good enough level which was the other thing most people could tell old and new phones apart with.
The final nail in the coffin is 120hz being normal now for the fast feel.

Other than finding a whole new use case for smartphones I think sales are just down for good until they can make foldable/rollables without any downsides.

Written on a cheap 2018 Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s and I don't feel like I'm missing out

 

[inhility]

At this point it's time for these companies to start offering old stuff they removed as new 'features'. Like removable battery or 3.5mm ports lol.