Smartphone Market Declined 7 Percent in 1Q22

The global smartphone market declined by 7% YoY, shipping 328 million units in 1Q22, according to Counterpoint Research. The decline was caused by ongoing component shortages, as well as a COVID resurgence at the beginning of the quarter and the Russia-Ukraine war towards the end. The global smartphone market also, as expected, had a seasonal decline of 12% QoQ.

“The global smartphone market presented a mixed bag in the first quarter of 2022. Samsung seems to have overcome component shortages that affected its supply last year, as evidenced by higher-than-expected growth in its shipments despite a late flagship launch. Major Chinese OEMs such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo, meanwhile, faced a greater component supply crunch, resulting in their shipments falling by 20%, 19%, and 19% YoY respectively,“ said Singh Walia, Senior Analyst Harmeet at Counterpoint Research.

Samsung shipped 74 million units in the quarter, down just 3%, and was one of only two top-five smartphone brands to come close to its pre-pandemic Q1 shipments. Their shipments grew by 7% QoQ. Apple’s global smartphone shipments remained flat at 59 million units. Its quarterly shipment decline of 28% is primarily due to seasonality.

Xiaomi’s global smartphone shipments declined by 20% to 39 million units, with its market share falling to 12% from 14% in the same quarter last year. OPPO’s shipments declined by 19% and 9% QoQ to 31 million units. Its market share fell to 9% from 11% in 1Q21. vivo also declined by 19% YoY and 3% QoQ with its market share falling to 9%.

“While component shortages are expected to ease soon, the Russia-Ukraine war poses a new challenge to the recovery of the global smartphone market. In 1Q22, the war had little impact on global smartphone shipments. Although Samsung and Apple withdrew from the Russian market in early March, the consequences are, at the moment, relatively small on a global scale. The two vendors make up around half of the Russian smartphone shipments, but their combined shipments in Russia account for less than 2% of total global smartphone shipments. However, the impact of the war may develop wider ramifications if it leads to a drop in availability of raw materials, a rise in prices, further inflationary pressure, and/or other vendors withdrawing from Russia,“ said Jan Stryjak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research.