Smartphone sales keep falling: But why?

The latest quarterly report from International Data Corporation (IDC) doesn’t say much for smartphone sales. It is stated that global sales will continue to decline in 2023, and this forecast is even more worrying than the previous forecast. However, there will be a recovery as of next year.

Economic conditions lowered demand.

According to the report, the reason for the decline in smartphone sales is the current economic conditions. Consumers tend to save due to the global economic fluctuation, increasing inflation and interest rates that started after the pandemic period. Although inflation has fallen globally in the last six months, the damage has been done once.

Sales will decline year-over-year

For these reasons, IDC expects smartphone shipments to decrease by 3.2 percent in 2023. This forecast is even worse than the previous one. In the report published in February, it was predicted that the decrease would be limited to 1.1 percent. On the other hand, smartphone shipments are expected to total 1.17 billion units this year. Estimates for 2027 are around 1.4 billion units. The report also states that the average selling price of smartphones will drop from $421 in 2023 to $377 in 2027.

But the news isn’t all that bad. Despite lower forecasts for 2023, IDC reports that in 2024, the smartphone market will experience a rebound with 6 percent year-over-year growth. Additionally, according to the report, consumer demand is recovering much slower than expected in all regions.

Recovery in 2024

Nabila Popal, IDC’s research director for Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said: “If 2022 is the year of excess inventory, 2023 will be a cautious year. While everyone wants to have inventory ready for the inevitable wave of recovery, no one wants to hold inventory for too long. This means that brands that take risks at the right time can potentially reap big rewards.”

IDC believes this big win will be in foldable phones. “We continue to see more foldable designs on the market, a great technological step forward for this industry, but the timing is unfortunate,” the report says. On the other hand, the foldable phone market is dominated by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4. Samsung has not made major innovations in the current generation and the next generation this year. The company may be waiting for the right moment. It should be noted that although Samsung dominates the market, it is not alone: ​​there are competitors such as Google, Honor, Huawei, Motorola, OPPO, Tecno, Vivo and Xiaomi.