With rising inflation still plaguing most parts of the world, US interest rate hikes leading to soaring US dollar while taking a toll on consumer purchasing power in the rest of the world and the weakening global economy and market confidence dampening phone upgrades throughout second-half 2022, third-quarter and fourth-quarter 2022 global smartphone shipments are set to come to 277 million units and 311 million units, respectively, each showing a double-digit on-year decline.
Compared to the forecast DIGITIMES Research made in October, DIGITIMES Research has adjusted the projections on 2022 and 2023 global smartphone shipments downward by 11 million units and 12 million units to 1.165 billion units and 1.191 billion units, respectively.
Compared to the forecast given in September, third-quarter and fourth-quarter 2022 smartphone shipments to China have also been lowered to 58.4 million units and 61.7 million units and the on-year decline widened to 20.5% and 24.3%, respectively.
Chart 2: Shipments by China and non-China markets, 3Q21-4Q22 (m units)
Table 1: Global smartphone shipment forecast, 1Q23-4Q23 (m units)
Chart 4: Shipments in China and non-China markets, 2021-2023 (m units)
Chart 5: Annual shipments by top brands, 2022-2023 (m units)
Chart 6: 5G smartphone shipments by China and non-China markets, 2021-2023 (m units)
Chart 7: Global foldable smartphone shipment share by brand, 2022-2023 (m units)
