Not even the Christmas period could save the fourth quarter of 2022, in which a fall of 18.3% was registered
There is no precedent in the history of mobile telephony with which to compare the latest data from the IDC consultancy. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the sale of smartphones has fallen by 18.3%. It is quite a blow for a sector that often relies on the Christmas shopping period to save the accounts for the year and that has contributed significantly to the fact that 2022, as a whole, has closed with a fall of 11.3% in number. of terminals sold.
Analysts themselves have been caught off guard by the crash. “We have never seen sales in the last quarter of the year be lower than in the previous one, but lower demand and high inventory have forced manufacturers to drastically cut production“, explains Nabila Popal, research director of IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team.
As usually happens in these cases, there is no single factor that explains the sudden slowdown in the sector. Economic uncertainty is forcing vendors to be much more conservative with their orders, but unexpected problems have also arisen in the production chain. Consumers also they renew the mobile less and less frequently.
Nobody is saved. Even Manzanawhich tends to better resist this type of market in free fall, has had a tough quarter. The sale of iPhone, according to the consultancy, has fallen almost 15%. A total of 72 million of these phones have been sold, 10 million less than in the same period last year.
In the case of Apple, it has not been so much due to lack of demand as the result of having to stop its manufacturing plants in Shenzhen for several days due to an outbreak of Covid-19. This strike has affected especially to the iPhone 14 Pro models, the most demanded and with which the company generates more income. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, when sales tend to skyrocket, company stores would put out of stock signs on virtually all models and only guarantee deliveries in mid-January.
For other manufacturers the situation has been even worse. Xiaomi sales, for example, have fallen by 26.3%. Almost all that has been sold is inventory from prior quarters, and thanks to aggressive bidding.
“2023 is going to be a year in which exercise cautionno. Manufacturers will have to reevaluate their catalogs and the channel will think twice before taking on excess inventory. The positive note is that consumers will find better deals,” explains Anthony Scarsella, director of research at IDC.
The disastrous end of 2022 has even put recovery predictions for 2023 in jeopardy. IDC expects the year to end with a 2.8% increase in the number of phones sold, but if demand picks up, it won’t be until the end of the year. of year
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