The smartphone market may be effectively on the mend, with a number of experiences from analysis homes and up to date financials from sector gamers pointing to a extra optimistic gross sales panorama following a years-long decline in demand.
In line with a preliminary report from Omdia for the third quarter of 2023, world shipments, at 301.6 million items, had been down by a mere 0.7% yr on yr. And sparking even larger optimism within the smartphone sector are the constructive sequential statistics, as shipments elevated by 13.4% within the three months to September in contrast with the second quarter of this yr.
“For the primary time this yr, half of the top-10 main smartphone set OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] noticed progress, together with Apple, Xiaomi, Transsion Holdings Group, Honor and Huawei. The opposite half consists of Samsung, Vivo and Realme, who all noticed massive declines,” Omdia famous in its report.
As a complete, the third quarter of the yr represented the ninth consecutive quarter of year-on-year declines, following a interval of sturdy demand in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic between the final quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021. In line with the analysis crew at Omdia, the handset market has not been in a position to maintain tempo with that enlargement attributable to “a spread of challenges”, together with manufacturing points in China and excessive inflation that resulted in decreased shopper confidence and demand.
Most shipments within the interval had been made by Samsung (58.8 million), although its market share fell from 21% within the third quarter of 2022 to 19%, whereas Apple’s market share elevated to 18% on the again of a 2.3% year-on-year improve in shipments to 53.4 million items. The highest 5 was accomplished by Chinese language distributors Xiaomi, Oppo and Transsion, in keeping with Omdia.
Analysis firm Kantar additionally issued a market evaluation report based mostly on the third quarter of the yr, suggesting that the decline in smartphone gross sales is “levelling off”, which it described as “a marked enchancment for an business that has confronted a gradual and accelerated decline” following the pandemic. It additionally famous that Apple recorded the strongest gross sales efficiency of all smartphone manufacturers within the interval after the launch of its newest technology, the iPhone 15.
“It’s encouraging to see indicators of market restoration because the smartphone business stabilises within the third quarter of the yr. Particularly, Apple’s iOS stood out with a outstanding year-on-year improve in share of gross sales. Apple’s differentiation technique is proving profitable with the iPhone 15 sequence persevering with its success in Europe. The most recent OS knowledge additionally reinforces the significance of software program innovation in an business the place {hardware} innovation faces challenges”, commented Jack Hamlin, world shopper insights director at Kantar’s Worldpanel division.
Alongside each experiences, Apple launched its financialswith the corporate’s CEO Tim Cook dinner highlighting “a September quarter-revenue report for iPhone and an all-time income report in providers”. He added that the US-based tech big has its “strongest lineup of merchandise ever heading into the vacation season, together with the iPhone 15 lineup and our first carbon impartial Apple Watch fashions, a serious milestone in our efforts to make all Apple merchandise carbon impartial by 2030.”
Including to the cell machine sector optimism was the most recent monetary report from cell chipmaker big Qualcomm. Whereas its revenues in its fiscal fourth quarter had been down by 24% yr on yr, this was nonetheless higher than anticipated. In line with business analyst Richard Windsor, the corporate’s outcomes are “signalling that the worst is over”. In his newest Radio Free Cellular weblogWindsor added that additional hopes have been heightened by current outcomes from Samsung and chipmaker TSMC. “That is excellent news for the smartphone element business, as one of many detrimental elements (extra stock) affecting demand has been eliminated,” he wrote.
– Yanitsa Boyadzhieva, Deputy Editor, TelecomTV
