Samsung overtakes Apple in phone shipments as the market dips again

nanoguy

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In brief: The smartphone market just saw its fifth straight quarter of decline in what has become a familiar picture of phone makers experiencing the sting of low demand for their products. Changing consumer priorities made for a horror holiday quarter, but the first three months of 2023 were hardly different.

Earlier this year, we learned that smartphone shipments had dipped to the lowest point observed in a decade. Last year was a rough one for phone makers who were expecting consumers to get tired of their aging 4G handsets and give way to a new "upgrade supercycle." Companies like Samsung saw their profits evaporate as low demand for mobile devices also translated into smaller orders for NAND, DRAM, and other components.

The trend of slowing smartphone sales continued into the first quarter of this year with a 12 percent year-over-year decline. Interestingly, Canalys analysts believe the market shows signs of stability even as they report on the fifth consecutive quarter that saw waning demand for this device category. Perhaps they are optimistic about the rough economy improving in the second half of this year like most industry watchers, but we'll have to wait and see.

The decline, they say, was the expected result of high inflation, changing consumer priorities, and general chaos along the supply chain. Despite an oversupply of chips and other components as well as aggressive marketing campaigns, people are holding onto their phones for longer and viewing them as commodities that see incremental improvements with each new generation that comes out. Still, with every passing quarter, there's an increasing chance that some consumers will need to upgrade.

When zooming in, Apple and Samsung fared better than other smartphone vendors. Samsung even managed to improve quarter-over-quarter and capture 22 percent of the global market, surpassing the Cupertino giant in the process. That said, strong sales of the iPhone 14 Pro helped Apple secure second place with a 21 percent market share. Then we have Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo with 11 percent, 10 percent, and eight percent of global shipments, respectively.

Canalys says most brands are taking measures to reduce existing inventories and adjust their manufacturing volume to match the lower demand. The most glaring example is Samsung, which has scaled back memory chip production until prices stabilize and demand grows again. Other suppliers will likely follow suit in the coming months.

Overall, this is a familiar picture that describes not only smartphones but the health of the entire tech industry. Worldwide IT spending is expected to take another hit in the coming months, and the most optimistic predictions point to an eventual recovery towards the end of the year.

Masthead credit: Daniel Romero

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People are starting to get it: your current phone can do anything you could conceivably do on that tiny screen. 4G is more than enough speed for anyone except those playing scaled-down home console and PC ports. What most of us are waiting on now are *practical* improvements: battery life, better blocking of ads and tracking, even innovations in UI and controls, which could easily mean just giving us updated versions of what we had in prior decades. Gen-Z has discovered the physical k/b and word is they like it.
 
In all honesty, most people should be just fine with their phone for 4-6 years as long as they take good care of it. There really is no reason to upgrade every 1-2 years. Nothing ground breaking has emerged for phones in a while and adding more cameras isn't it.

Most phone batteries can work well enough into the 4-6 year range, but it does depend on the user's needs. For someone that's constantly on the phone playing games or streaming, a battery may not hold up well past the 4 year mark. Then you have someone like me that's going on 5.5 years with the same phone and I don't do much with it. I play sudoku once or twice a day, browse the internet for maybe a total of 20 minutes on it, send texts, take a few pictures and maybe take 1-2 calls a day on it for 4-5 minutes. By the time I'm plugging my phone in before I go to bed I've still got 60%+ charge.

The constant increase in prices and all recently, hopefully more and more people are starting to realize they're okay with keeping a phone longer than 1-2 years. I'm dreading the fact that I know my phone's battery will soon be at a point where it won't be beneficial for me and I'll have to get a new phone (or hope I can find a proper, new, battery and replace it myself....but that requires tools I don't have.....).
 
"shipping"

Apple did the same thing too when they were "number 1".
Shipping doesn't mean the same as SOLD. How many of these "shipped" phones
end up going back to the manufacturer, dumped?
 
Current world and market issues are mostly to blame, but Apple really needs to start listening to their customer complaints and start innovating again. The smartphone market is so stagnant and no one is really doing anything particularly impressive so many just don't care to spend the money on something that not only they don't really need, but may simply aggravate them to no end. Apple has been so behind Android in many features, along with more and more bugs and glitchy or incorrect UI elements are helping to drive what were once loyal customers away. I used to love iOS for its consistency and stability but since around 11 or 12 version it has been going in a downward spiral faster and faster.
 
I don't need innovative phone. I want a nice phone over which I have control. That's why I see no reason buying apple, and I'm fine with Samsung. Swaping each 4-5 years works perfectly well, currently on note 10 and it is still working fine. Next year will be checking what they will offer, I'm glad they not selling ultra with exinos anymore...
 
I had iPhone and have Android, had LG and others, now have Samsung. Very good, but hated iPhone.
 
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