Global smartphone shipments expected to see decline this year to 1.19 billion units

The analyst company IDC has revised its forecast on global smartphone shipments this year to reflect what it believes will be a slower market recovery than previously expected. This year, the shipments of smartphones worldwide are expected to fall by 1.1% to 1.19 billion units. In its previous estimates, IDC expected to see a growth in shipments of 2.8%. It said that a real market recovery is now not expected until 2024.

Commenting, Nabila Popal, a research director for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said:

“With increasing costs and ongoing challenges in consumer demand, OEMs are quite cautious about 2023. While there is finally some good news coming out of China with the recent reopening, there is still a lot of uncertainty and lack of trust, which results in a cautious outlook. However, we remain convinced the global market will return to growth in 2024 once we are past these short-term challenges as there is a significant pent up refresh cycle in developed markets as well as room for smartphone penetration in emerging markets to fuel stable long-term growth.”

Android devices are expected to see a larger decline in shipments as a percentage this year than iOS devices. IDC says that Android shipments will fall by 1.2% while iOS device shipments will fall by 0.5%. This could be accredited to the fact that many Android devices are bought due to their lower price tag and people interested in these low to mid-range devices simply do not have money to buy a phone this year given the rampant inflation that is raising the cost of living in countries across the world.

While this is bad news for phone manufacturers, IDC did manage to find some positive things to report. It said that this year 5G devices will account for 62% of smartphones shipped and that the foldable phone market is continuing to grow. It also noted that the average selling price of smartphones has risen from $334 to $415 in 2022, however, this figure will begin to decline this year and reach $376 – this is great for people on tight budgets who will be searching for a device to buy at an affordable price in the near future.

Global smartphone shipments expected to see decline this year to 1.19 billion units