Global smartphone sales in the second quarter declined by 8% compared to the same period last year, with high-end smartphones being sought after

Global smartphone sales in Q2 decreased by 8% YoY, with a demand for high-end smartphones

【Phoneauto News】According to the latest report released by Counterpoint, global smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2023 decreased by 8% compared to the same period last year, and decreased by 5% compared to the previous quarter. This is the eighth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline.

Thanks to the strong performance of the Galaxy A series globally, Samsung leads the market with a 22% market share; Apple ranks second, achieving a historical high market share in the second quarter; the third largest brand Xiaomi faces resistance in its largest markets, China and India, and hopes to offset this decline through expansion in other markets and updating its product portfolio.

OPPO performed relatively well in China and India (thanks to OnePlus), and although it suffered losses in Western Europe, it managed to maintain its global market share. After strong growth in the Chinese market in the second quarter of last year, vivo (including iQOO) experienced a significant decline, while facing fierce competition from Samsung and OPPO in the offline markets of India and Southeast Asia.

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Global smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2023

The global smartphone market seems to have passed the stage of rapid growth, with consumers having longer replacement cycles and device innovations converging. The emergence of the smartphone refurbishment market has become more mature, especially with higher demand in the mid-to-low-end market.

However, the high-end smartphone market (wholesale price above $600) continued to grow in the second quarter and was not affected much, as mature consumers are choosing superior experiences. The high-end segment is the only growing segment this quarter, contributing to the market at its highest historical level. More than one-fifth of the smartphones sold this quarter belong to the high-end market.

Apple has achieved record market share in several new markets that are not traditionally considered its core markets, riding the wave of “high-end” products. For example, in India, it grew by 50% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year.

In the second quarter, mobile phone sales declined in all regions globally, but the largest decline was in relatively developed markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, where the annual decline reached double digits. The decline in China, India, the Middle East, and Africa was relatively smaller. In China, despite the significant promotional efforts during the “618” sales event, the response was mediocre. However, this event prevented a decline in the Chinese smartphone market in June and indirectly prevented a decline in the global smartphone market.

However, the smartphone industry is not all bad news. According to the Counterpoint Smartphone Inventory Tracking System, global smartphone inventory (sales and sell-through rate) has remained at a healthy level over the past four to five months. This provides some breathing space for OEM manufacturers to launch and introduce new models in the second half of the year and attract consumers to upgrade, accelerating the replacement cycle.

It is expected that the market will slowly recover in the coming quarters.

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