Shipments of smartphones plunge to a level last seen in 2013.

CNBC – Due to macroeconomic difficulties and sluggish consumer demand, global smartphone sales fell in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is typically a busy Christmas shopping season, according to market research company IDC.

According to a survey released late Wednesday by IDC, electronics companies delivered 300.3 million smartphones in the October to December quarter, a decrease of 18.3% compared to the same period last year. The decrease is the biggest one-quarter dip ever.

The amount of smartphones delivered worldwide in 2022 was 1.21 billion, which is the lowest annual shipping total since 2013. IDC attributed this to “substantially decreased consumer demand, inflation, and economic concerns.”

“Shipments during the holiday quarter have never been fewer than in the preceding quarter. Vendors, however, dramatically reduced their shipments as a result of low demand and large inventory, according to Nabila Popal, research director at IDC.

Devices shipped to stores and mobile carriers by manufacturers like Apple and Samsung are referred to as shipments. Although they do not equal sales, they do indicate the level of desire.

The 2.8% improvement projected for 2023 is seriously jeopardised by the year’s “difficult end, with high downside risk to the estimate,” according to IDC.

Apple remained the world’s leading manufacturer of smartphones. According to IDC, Apple delivered 72.3 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, a 14.9% decrease from the same period last year. Apple has a market share of 24.1%. Even though Apple released its newest models, the iPhone 14 series, before the important Christmas quarter, sales fell.

Following a Covid outbreak and worker protests at the largest iPhone production facility in the world in Zhengzhou, China, Apple had a number of supply chain problems in the third quarter.

Shipments from Samsung, the second-largest smartphone manufacturer, fell 15.6% year over year to 58.2 million devices. Samsung did not introduce a brand-new flagship smartphone for the fourth quarter, but the company will likely unveil it during an event on February 1.

Third-placed Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi delivered 33.2 million devices in the last quarter of the year, a 26.3% decrease from the same period last year. The top five smartphone manufacturers, which also include Chinese smartphone manufacturers Oppo and Vivo, all had that greatest fall.

According to Anthony Scarsella, research director at IDC, “2022 decreasing more than 11% for the year, 2023 is set up to be a year of caution as suppliers will reassess their portfolio of devices and distributors will think twice before taking on extra inventory.”