Smartphone shipments to China increased by over 20% on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2022 thanks to Single's Day promotion campaigns and vendors' preparation for the Lunar New Year holiday demand. However, the volumes will slip by almost 15% sequentially in the first quarter of 2023 as sales begin to plunge after the holidays.
Because of the weak economy and consumer confidence, tablet brands will continue to scale back their shipments in the first quarter of 2023 with overall volumes estimated to decrease by 20% from the prior quarter.
China-based smartphone vendors shipped a total of 150 million smartphones in fourth-quarter 2022, growing 6.6% from a quarter ago but plunging 21.4% from a year ago and the volumes are expected to continue to slide from a year ago in the first quarter of 2023.
Smartphone shipments to the China market amounted to 58.4 million units in the third quarter of 2022, falling 20.5% from a year ago to a new low since third-quarter 2020.
DIGITIMES Research expects smartphone shipments to grow 2-9% a year throughout the period from 2023-2027 with the CAGR for the five years to come to 4.8%.
Seeing the feeble smartphone sales in their home market China and reduced smartphone purchases by consumers in overseas markets because of inflation, Chinese smartphone brands, to lower channel inventory levels, stayed conservative with their global shipments in the third quarter of 2022 with combined volumes amounting to around 140 million units in the quarter, down 5.5% sequentially and 18.2% on year.
Global tablet shipments reached 38.4 million units in the third quarter of 2022, slightly better than DIGITIMES Research originally anticipated, driven mainly by increased orders from Apple, which saw tablet shipments disrupted by China's COVID-19 lockdowns implemented in cities of the Yangtze Delta, and other brand vendors' keen promotions on tablets.
According to DIGITIMES Research's observations, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, worldwide inflation and interest rate hikes, 2022 global tablet shipments are estimated to further decline 1.5% to come to 139 million units. Looking into the next five years, governments around the world raise interest rates to fight inflation, which however curbs economic growth.
According to DIGITIMES Research's surveys and analyses, second-quarter 2022 smartphone shipments to the China market amounted to 64.2 million units, representing a new low since third-quarter 2020 and an 11.1% on-year decline, amid the already weak market demand on top of lockdown restrictions.
According to Digitimes Research's statistics, global tablet shipments amounted to 31.95 million units in second-quarter 2022, coming short of expectation, as the market fell under negative influences including low season effects and rising global inflation as well as China's COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, which mainly affected the supply side.
According to Digitimes Research's statistics and analyses, with sales in China remaining sluggish and rising inflation dampening consumer spending in overseas markets, China-based smartphone vendors' channel inventory levels ran high and their shipments continued to decline in second-quarter 2022, amounting to 150 million units, down 5.2% from a quarter ago and 4.6% from a year ago.
