The smartphone sales They are going through a rough patch. so much that They are going through their worst moment in a decade.. According to data from the IDC consultancy, everything indicates that in 2023 its sales will register a decrease of 4.7% year-on-year until staying at 1,150 million units. This figure lowers a previous forecast of the consultant for the period by 3.2%.
The causes of this reduction in sales, more pronounced than expected, are a weaker economic forecast, as well as sustained inflation, which has reduced consumer demand and lengthened terminal renewal cycles. However, IDC expects the market to start to recover in 2024, with industry sales expected to increase 4.5% year-over-year. Then through 2027, IDC expects the annual growth rate of smartphone sales until then to be 1.7%.
Regarding sales by operating system, IDC expects that those of iPhones will grow by 1.1% in 2023, since sales of iOS devices are more resilient than those of Android models. as a result, the market share of iPhones will continue to grow, reaching 19.9% of the total. For its part, the number of devices with Android will drop by 6%.
Sales are expected to decline in all regions. It will be more pronounced in China, Asia-Pacific (excluding China and Japan), Latin America and Western Europe. In them, sales will fall by 3.6%, 4.4%, 6.2% and 6.1% year-on-year respectively. In the United States, with a greater presence of iPhones, they will fall by 3.8%.
Nabila Popal, Research Director of Consumer Devices and Mobility at IDCemphasizes that «Although inventory levels have normalized, most manufacturers remain extremely cautious in their short-term business plans, even as the momentum of recovery is near. Although the market will certainly return to growth, the longer refresh cycles are holding back the growth rate in the long term, preventing the available market from reaching pre-covid levels. In an environment like this, it is crucial that providers focus their strategy on increasing their value and focus on channel incentives and promotions to attract consumers, winning them over with flexible financing options. On the positive side, consumers are willing to pay for it even if consumers stay with their devices longer, which will help drive average sales prices up in 2023 for the fourth year in a row.«.
