IDC: Global smartphone shipments down 18.3%, lowest since 2013

Analyst firm IDC has released the results of smartphone shipments for the fourth quarter of 2022 and for last year as a whole. And they are disappointing.

Here's What It Costs

So, at the end of the fourth quarter, global smartphone shipments fell by 18.3%, the biggest drop in a single quarter. A total of 300.3 million gadgets were shipped during that time.

"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", said Nabila Popal, group research director, IDC Worldwide Tracker.

Apple was again the market leader in the final quarter of 2022 with 72.3 million shipments and a 24.1% market share. In second place was Samsung (58.2 million) with a 19.4% market share. In third place was Xiaomi (33.2 million). The Chinese company experienced the largest drop in shipments - by 26.3% compared to the values of the fourth quarter of 2021.

Looking at the total for 2022, global smartphone shipments fell 11.3% to 1.21 billion.

In the annual ranking, Samsung was the leader with 260.9 million units and a market share of 21.6%. Apple was second with 226.4 million and 18.8% market share while Xiaomi had 153.1 million shipments and 12.7% market share.

Source: IDC