After reaching record sales figures at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global demand for smartphones has been continuously falling for the past two years.
However, the first half of 2023 saw the biggest shipments drop in years. With inflation crumbling consumer purchasing power and cutting spending budgets, global smartphone shipments dropped below 2019 levels.
According to data presented by CasinosEnLigne.com, global smartphone shipments dropped by 11% year-over-year to 534 million units in the first half of the year.
67M Less Smartphones Shipped in H1
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the global smartphone market saw four straight quarters of shipments decline, resulting in the lowest number of shipments in years.
Statistics show global smartphone shipments hit 644 million units in the first half of 2019. After falling to 552.4 million in H1 2020, this figure surged to nearly 659 million in the first half of 2021. But it was downhill from there. After a huge technology refresh of PCs and mobile phones in 2021 due to remote work and education amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the chaotic supply and skyrocketing inflation have cut global smartphone shipments by almost 20%.
The IDC data show global smartphone shipments dropped by 59 million year-over-year to just over 600 million in H1 2022. The declining trend continued in the first half of 2023, with total shipments falling by another 67 million worldwide.
Samsung Smartphone Shipments Dropped by 16% YoY, 4x more than Apple’s
The falling demand for smartphones has affected all major players in the market. Still, some of them saw much bigger shipments drop than others. According to an IDC survey, Apple’s smartphone shipments fell by 4% year-over-year. The tech giant sold 97.7 million iPhones in the first half of 2023, down from 101.1 million in the same period a year ago.
Apple’s biggest competitor, Samsung, saw an even bigger drop. Statistics show the South Korean tech giant shipped 114 million smartphones in the year’s first half, or 16% less than the 136 million reported in H1 2022.
China’s leading technology company, Xiaomi, suffered 20% shipments drop in this period, falling from 79.4 million to 63.7 million year-over-year. Statistics show OPPO was the only smartphone vendor among the top five whose shipments increased in H1 2023. Between January and June, the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer shipped 52.8 million smartphones, 700,000 more than in the year-ago period.
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