Result of Q2 2022

According to Mobile World Live, worldwide smartphone shipments declined 9 per cent year-on-year in Q2 due to economic and regional uncertainty. However, Apple’s iPhone 13 remained in high demand and Samsung benefitted from lower-tier models. Shipments of the iPhone 13 helped boost Apple to a 17% share compared with 14% in Q2 2021. As a result, it ranks second overall in the recent quarter. Samsung took the top spot with a 21% share compared with 18 %, largely due shipments of its mid-tier A-series.

Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo suffered double-digit declines in shipments. Thus, it left them with shares of 14%, 10% and 9%, respectively. On the other hand, the numbers were 17%, 11% and 10% in Q2 2021.

An analyst mentioned, “economic headwinds, sluggish demand and inventory backlogs resulted in vendors reassessing their strategies. The oversupplied mid-range is an exposed segment for vendors to focus on adjusting new launches. This is because budget-constrained consumers shift their device purchases toward the lower end.”

The other analyst noted “consumers’ disposable income was impacted by soaring inflation this year.” However, he expected vendors to accelerate promotions and special offers to accelerate sell-through ahead of launches during the holiday season. In Q2 2021 shipments at 316 million units, based on sell-in.

Stagnant

Our media has already reported that the smartphone market is matured. The number of smartphone shipment was about 173 million in 2009 and around 1300 million in 2014, respectively. It means that the smartphone shipment was more than 7 times over only 5 years. We assume the average price of a smartphone was $300 in 2009, so the market size was almost $52 billion at that time.

In addition, we do the same calculation by assuming that the average price of a smartphone was $400 in 2014. As a result, the market size became $520 billion in 2014. This number was already incredible. What’s more, the smartphone market was grown by 10 times for only 5 years.

However, the number of shipments is stagnant now. In fact, it was about 1400 million shipments in 2018. If we assume the average price of a smartphone was $500 in 2018, the market size was almost $700 billion.

What’s more, the pandemic has made the situation worse. The number of smartphone shipment became about 1280 million in 2020. Therefore, we can possibly say that the market is not matured but declined.

Next action

Therefore, it is very crucial for both smartphone manufacturers and their suppliers to think what they will do next. This is because companies cannot expect their growth, if the main market is matured and they keep the same market share. It is very true for Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and others. That is why these companies try to enter a new attractive market, which are the Electric Vehicle and healthcare market.

These big companies have enough money, people, experience, equipment and others to compete in new markets. However, small and medium enterprises will not be able to do the same thing. In this sense, their management must have enough insights to make better decision. Also, our media tries to help them do so.