Apple won the battle but Samsung won the war of 2022 smartphone market

Recently, well-known market research firm IDC published its new analysis of the 2022 global smartphone market alongside Q4. IDC analysis pointed out that global smartphone shipments declined 18.3% year over year to 300.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Talking about full-year records, smartphone vendors shipped 1.21 billion units in 2022 with an 11.3% decline. The research shows that 2022 is the worst year for the smartphone market as it had the lowest annual shipment total since 2013 due to significantly dampened consumer demand.

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[Q4, 2022] Apple won the battle

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apple was the world’s largest smartphone vendor with 72.3 million units shipped, and secured a whopping 24.1% market share. As compared to the same duration last year, Apple faced a decline of about 15% as shipments were 85 million units in 4Q21.

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Samsung, on the other hand, recorded a market share of 19.4% with shipments of 58.2 million smartphone units in the fourth quarter of 2022. The company’s shipments declined 15.6% compared to 4Q21, while Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo completed the top five chart with 11%, 8.4% and 7.5% of market share.

[2022] Samsung won the war

When it comes to full-year smartphone market records, Samsung was the king with highest 260.9 million units of shipment with a 21.6% share. Apple sold 226.4 million iPhones in 2022 and secured 18.8% of global market share. Both of the tech giants faced a 4% decline year-over-year.

In the first, second and third quarters of 2022, Samsung remained the largest smartphone seller in the global market. Thanks to the new iPhone 14 series, Apple got a chance to overtake the Korean tech giant in the last quarter of 2022. But, not too long, the Galaxy S23 series is going official next month to seize the whole quarter.

“We continue to witness consumer demand dwindle as refresh rates climb past 40 months in most major markets,” said Anthony Scarsella, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “With 2022 declining more than 11% for the year, 2023 is set up to be a year of caution as vendors will rethink their portfolio of devices while channels will think twice before taking on excess inventory. However, on a positive note, consumers may find even more generous trade-in offers and promotions continuing well into 2023 as the market will think of new methods to drive upgrades and sell more devices, specifically high-end models.”