INTELLIGENT MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Global smartphone market shrinks 11 % in Q1 2022 as regional headwinds bite
G lobal smartphone shipments reached 311.2 million units in Q1 2022 , down 11 % year on year . Samsung retook the lead after refreshing its portfolio for 2022 , shipping 73.7 million units , down 4 % on a year ago . Apple combined high demand for the iPhone 13 series with a new iPhone SE , leading to solid growth of 8 % and 56.5 million units shipped . Xiaomi , OPPO and vivo completed the top five .
“ The Chinese market caused nearly half the worldwide decline , mainly due to seasonal weakness . Major vendors suffered sequential declines , except for HONOR , which took first place in China for the first time since it spun out from Huawei 18 months ago ,” said Toby Zhu , Analyst at Canalys . “ But a strict pandemic control policy has resulted in lockdowns in major cities in China , casting a shadow over the consumer market in the short term . Moreover , disruptions in component production and logistics will affect most vendors ’ Q2 shipments , both in mainland China and worldwide .”
Both Transsion and Xiaomi shipments fell over 30 % year on year in the Middle East and Africa in Q1 , predominantly due to supply pressure at the low end . “ Facing growing uncertainty , the leading vendors responded rapidly to local demand opportunities by reallocating locally optimised stock from one region to another . Transsion has been diversifying its business by expanding its footprint in Asia since 2021 . This strategy helps the company weather tough macro conditions as skyrocketing inflation affects affordability in the ultra-low-end segment ,” said Sanyam Chaurasia , Analyst , Canalys .
“ North America was the only region to grow this quarter , showing the strength of the consumer market ,” said Runar Bjørhovde , Research Analyst , Canalys . “ While its solid performance was particularly driven by demand for Apple ’ s iPhone 13 series and Samsung ’ s newly launched Galaxy S22 family , vendors such as Lenovo , TCL and Google continued to make an impressive effort , taking over carrier slots that previously belonged to LG .”
“ Vendors will be testing their capabilities in the next three to six months to navigate a challenging macro environment ,” added Bjørhovde . “ Inflation , the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war , COVID-19 restrictions and supply disruptions will affect all levels of operation and planning . Though short-term projections are filled with regional uncertainties , component shortages are starting to ease , which relieves some cost pressure . Leading vendors will take this downtime to strengthen relationships with supply chain partners and their core product and channel capabilities to capture rebounding demand in the second half of 2022 . •
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