Smartphone sales are slumping this year, but not for Google

More people are buying premium phones over budget or mid-range options

SUMMARY

• The smartphone market in North America is facing a sharp 12% decline in phone purchases from 2022 to 2023, with overall sales at the lowest in over a decade.

• Phone companies, including Samsung, Google, and Apple, are focusing on premium phone options ($1,000 and above) to compensate for the decline in overall sales.

• Google is the only brand to have experienced an increase in total units sold in Q2 2023, and it is hoping to capitalize on this positive momentum with upcoming releases and ad campaigns.

It’s a weird time to run a smartphone brand in North America. We’re in an extremely volatile period in which we don’t exactly know what will and won’t sell with certainty. That has led to fewer people buying phones from every company except for Google when comparing Q2 2022 shipments to those from Q2 2023. While that’s definitely a good sign for Google, the entire market has been heading towards investments in premium smartphones, as people just aren’t replacing their devices as often as they used to.

The latest report from Canalys looks into the number of phones being purchased in Q2 2023 as well as in both recent years and estimates of future years. It does not look into how much profit companies are making through these sales, but it does discuss how much each sale directly costs the consumers. In general, the smartphone market’s outlook is bleak in quantity. The change in the number of phones that have been and will be purchased by people in the North American market is estimated to be a sharp 12% decline from what it was in 2022, Canalys forecasts.

Source: Canalys

That’s a big decline, and the number of phones being purchased in Q2 2023 was the lowest in over a decade. Canalys expects that number to rise marginally over the next few years, however, getting back to over 150 million units being sold per year in 2027. Phone companies (Samsung, Google, Apple, etc.) are beginning to develop strategies involving premium phone ($1,000 and above) options now to capitalize on the dwindling number of overall sales and keep revenue levels where they need to be. While overall individual unit sales are down, premium phone sales are beginning to take up more and more of that space, as budget phone ($200 and below) sales are beginning to disappear.

Source: Canalys

Of course, the second quarter of any year, which consists of the months of April, May and June, is one of the slowest times of the year anyway for tech brands. Phones and other smart devices generally get released heading into late Q3 (July, August, and September) or early Q4 (October, November, and December) to capitalize on the holiday market. So while there were fewer sales expected during Q2 than in previous quarters, the overall trend lends itself to the slightly dim numbers.

Lastly, to touch on Google’s achievement of being the only smartphone brand with a rise in total units sold from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023, it’s a great sign for the company. It sold approximately 800,000 phones in Q2 2022, and it sold 1.2 million in Q2 2023. It still ranks fifth on the list, however, in overall market share percentage at 4%, as Apple (54%) Samsung (24%) Motorola (8%) and TCL (5%) all beat Google out. With the upcoming Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro coming out soon, new devices like the Google Pixel Watch 2 impressing in early teasers, and some fun ad campaigns, Google is hoping to capitalize on this positive momentum over the coming years.

The market is always changing, and the market's needs must be analyzed and met to beat other brands. Consumer patterns have indicated that premium smartphone options are the way forward. Only time will tell if that’s the right strategy to pump some life back into the North American smartphone industry’s heart.

Source