Smartphone Shipments Have Largest-Ever Q3 Decline: IDC

Worldwide smartphone shipments fell 9.7% year over year to 301.9 million units in Q3, marking the largest-ever Q3 decline for the category and the fifth consecutive quarterly drop, reported IDC Friday. Market leader Samsung had a 7.8% year-over-year shipment decline to 64 million, with share growing slightly to 21.2%. Apple, the only vendor with higher year-on-year shipments, gained 1.6% to 51.9 million, with Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo rounding out the top five. Vivo and Oppo each had declines of over 22% in the quarter, IDC said. Most of the decline came from emerging markets “where lack of demand, rising costs, and inflation impacted consumers with lesser disposable incomes,” said analyst Nabila Popal. Inventory was high at the start of the quarter, leading OEMs to reduce shipments and orders “in an attempt to deplete inventory,” the analyst said. IDC expects a market recovery next year but has pushed out growth estimates for later in the year: “We now expect a steeper shipment decline for 2022 and a softer recovery in 2023,” she said.