Thanks to a press release via the IDC (International Data Corporation), we’ve learned that smartphone shipments, including iPhone, have suffered the largest decline in a single quarter after holiday 2022 – let’s talk about it!
In some cases, Apple tends to avoid sales declines that plague other manufactures; however, the IDC estimates Apple shipped 72.3 million iPhones in December quarter vs. 85 million from last year – a 14.9% decline noted in the table below:
Apple is just one of many smartphone manufacturers that suffered similar, yet worse downwardly trending sales due to economic conditions with Xiaomi suffering the worst year-over-year sales drop at 26.3% (yeesh).
The IDC says this December quarter decline amounts to a total 18.3% drop in global smartphone sales vs last year – the largest-ever decline in a single quarter:
We have never seen shipments in the holiday quarter come in lower than the previous quarter. However, weakened demand and high inventory caused vendors to cut back drastically on shipments
Nabila Popal – Research Director of IDC Worldwide Tracker Team
Besides the general economic downturns due to COVID-19 restrictions and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the November riots that broke out in Zhengzhou’s Foxconn facility were heavily to blame for lack of sales in the holiday period. The riots inevitably causing longer than usual shipping delays.
Another variable to consider is the average consumer holding onto their aging smartphones longer thanks to continued software support and general hardware improvements over previous smartphone generations. As it turns out, people just don’t need to buy the latest and greatest phone every year!
Our resident host with the most, Jon Prosser, has a lot to say about that topic:
Generally speaking, even though this is the largest sales decline recorded for the smartphone market, the analysts and corporations had to see it coming, right?
Let’s just hope the entire market doesn’t collapse before we see what an iPhone 15 Ultra is actually like… that’s all we want!
