The fourth quarter of 2022 was a disaster for smartphone sales, seeing the biggest drop ever

With a million layoffs and rising inflation, it turns out that consumers aren’t interested in spending tons of money on a new smartphone either. International Data Corporation has the latest data on global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2022, and it’s a disaster. Shipments fell 18.3 percent year on year, the biggest drop in a single quarter and brought the year down to 11.3 percent. With total shipments of 1.21 billion phones for the year, IDC says this is the lowest annual shipment since 2013.

In the top five for the fourth quarter of 2022 – in order, these were Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo – Apple, of course, suffered the least, but not much. Apple shares in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to last year fell by 14.9%, Samsung – by 15.6%, and big loser Xiaomi – by 26.5%. During the year, Samsung was still in first place with a market share of 21.6%, Apple was No. 2 with 18.8%, and Xiaomi came in third with 12.7%.

IDC also notes that consumers are holding smartphones longer than ever with “refresh rate”or the time it takes before people buy a new phone, “up 40 months in most major markets.”The report concludes by saying, “2023 promises to be a year of caution as vendors rethink their device portfolio and distribution channels think twice before overstocking. in offers and promotions continuing through 2023 as the market thinks of new ways to upgrade and sell more devices, especially high-end models.”