Smartphone woes proceed as international market dips 9% • TechCrunch

Extra doom and gloom for smartphone producers, as international smartphone shipments expertise the third consecutive decline this 12 months. Per numbers from Canalys, shipments dropped a lowly 9% final quarter, marking the worst Q3 for the class since 2014.

Apple is a uncommon brilliant spot among the many numbers, with some optimistic progress as the remainder of the highest 5 posted declining numbers from the identical time final 12 months. Samsung stays in first place, with 22% if the general market, whereas Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo spherical out the highest 5.

Should you’ve adopted the class with any regularity, none of it will come as any shock, after all. Following years of explosive progress, numbers plateaued and started dropping off, as a result of features like pricing and market saturation. Issues, naturally, have been solely accelerated by the pandemic, courtesy of lockdowns and financial struggles. Since then, provide chain shortages, inflation and the like have solely served to exacerbate the state of affairs.

“The smartphone market is extremely reactive to client demand and distributors are adjusting shortly to the tough enterprise situations,” says Canalys Analyst Amber Liu. “For many distributors, the precedence is to cut back the danger of stock build up given deteriorating demand. Distributors had important stockpiles going into July, however sell-through progressively improved from September owing to aggressive discounting and promotions.”

For now, no less than, the class reveals no indicators of future enchancment.