Since 2016, the market, which has become mature, continues to decrease, in particular due to the lack of innovation of rupture.
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Global smartphones sales continue their decrease. In May, they fell 4 % compared to April, and 10 % in one year, according to a study by Counterpoint published Thursday, June 30. They thus pass below the bar of 100 million units sold per month.
A first since 2013, if we except 2020, marked by the Epidemia of Covid-19 and its devastating effects. Factory at the stop and closed shops then explained the fall in sales, fell to 70 million in June 2020. After a lively, but ephemeral, rebound, the market deteriorated again. Sales have not been able to reach the levels recorded for a year before.
The interest of Counterpoint’s study lies in that it describes the slow decline in the smartphone market. In a sector punctuated by the outputs of flagship products (Apple, Samsung, etc.), sales have grown overall, to reach monthly sales of some 160 million units in December 2016. But since then, the market, which has become mature , has continued to settle.
shortages, inflation, war in Ukraine, Chinese slowdown
Reason: a lack of breaking innovations. The long -awaited arrival of 5G – which should allow the latest generations of smartphones to benefit from much higher data flow rates – has not reversed the trend. No more than the arrival of foldable phones, that Samsung began to popularize in 2019, but which are too expensive to attract the masses.
In his report, COUTERPOINT believes that the market should continue to deteriorate. In question, the persistence, even reduced, of the shortage of semiconductors, inflation – which leads consumers to push their purchases, in particular in developed countries -, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine – which weighs On sales in Eastern Europe – and, above all, the slowdown in the Chinese market.
In a report published on the 1 er June, the IDC firm estimated that, on its own, the Middle Kingdom was responsible for 80 % of the slowdown. “China weighs for a quarter of the world market, and it faces both confinement measures, upward unemployment and macroeconomic tensions,” said Thomas Husson, analyst in Forrester.