Faced with a mix of negative factors, the smartphone market continues to be in 2023 so far
Faced with a mixture of negative factors, the smartphone market continues to be in the period of 2023 that has passed so far. After a two-year rise, during the period of the pandemic and the lockdowns, the market has now, since last year, entered a bottleneck, from which does not seem to exit immediately. The first quarter of this year confirmed the adverse conditions in smartphone sales, as weak consumer demand continues to delay the market recovery globally. According to the new – and manually revised – forecast from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, cited by SEPE, global smartphone sales in 2023 are expected to decline by 3.2%, to reach the levels of 1.17 billion devices. The research company's corresponding estimate for smartphone sales in February spoke of a smaller decrease of 1.1%. “The revision at hand was the result of various factors, including a weaker economic outlook and persistent inflation,” analysts note.
Despite the lower forecast for 2023, IDC still expects the market to recover in 2024, with 6.0% year-over-year growth. Analysts are not optimistic about the direction of smartphone sales in the global market in the near future. In fact, their estimates point to a weaker second quarter of 2023.
“Consumer demand is recovering much more slowly than expected in all regions, including China. If 2022 was a year of excess stocks, 2023 is a year of heightened caution,” the analysts note. When it comes to the individual categories of the smartphone market, users – globally – seem to continue to give a vote of confidence to foldable devices, which are a big technological step forward for the industry. Overall, both in 2023 and the following years, an increase in sales of foldable phones is expected. According to IDC research, sales of foldable phones will reach 21.4 million units this year, a number that represents an increase of more than 50% compared to the 14.2 million foldable smart-phones sold in 2022.
< iframe width='300px' height='500px' src='https://www.adstorebluebird.cy/api/banner/ServeBanner?zoneId=2734' frameborder='0' scrolling='no'>
