IDC reports worldwide phone shipments tumbled 8.9 percent in the first quarter of 2022 when compared with 2021.
Rival analyst company Counterpoint Research puts the 2022 q1 fall at seven percent to 328 million units.
IDC says the total fell to 314 million units. This is behind IDC’s earlier forecast.
Nabila Popal, a research director at IDC attributes the fall to negative consumer sentiment. The mood is down everywhere
thanks to worries about inflation and economic instability.
Invasion concerns, supply chain worries
Then there are concerns about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and further supply chain problems thanks to the lockdown in
Shanghai. The consumer mood is worse in China.
Counterpoint Senior Analyst Harmeet Singh Walia mentions similar factors behind the fall.
The turmoil has done little to change the relative position of the main players.
Both analyst firms note that Samsung remains the phone market leader and put the top four brands in the same order.
Samsung remains market leader
IDC says Samsung has 23.4 percent share of shipments. That is down a fraction on last year. In IDC’s book Apple is in
second with an 18 percent market share, its share is up by a larger, yet still small fraction.
Walia says Samsung overcame supply chain problems and a late flagship launch. Samsung and Apple were the only two
companies with shipments close to pre-pandemic levels.
The next issue of concern is that the Ukraine war could lead to a drop in the availability of raw materials needed to
make modern phones.
Phone shipments tumble 9 percent in first quarter was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.