As reported by The Register with reference to the report of the analytical company Canalys, global sales of smartphones are noticeably decreasing compared to last year. This happened due to inflation and the increase in the price of energy carriers, which in turn forces consumers to change their priorities from updating equipment to paying other bills and purchasing items of primary need.

The third quarter of 2022 was the worst for smartphone manufacturers in the last eight years. According to preliminary data from Canalys, manufacturers shipped approximately 296.21 million gadgets, which is 9 percent less than last year.

As analyst Amber Liu notes, manufacturers respond very quickly to changes in consumer demand and adapt to new business conditions:

“For most vendors, the priority is to reduce the risk of inventory building up given deteriorating demand. Vendors had significant stockpiles going into July, but sell-through gradually improved from September owing to aggressive discounting and promotions.”

Preliminary data may differ from the actual, but the company currently estimates that Samsung’s sales decreased by 4% (65.16 million smartphones) and accounted for 22% of total volumes. Shipments to Oppo and Vivo also declined. Xiaomi managed to do without changes. Again, only Apple showed growth – 53.3 million smartphones, which is an increase in volume by 9.2%.

A similar story is happening in the PC market, where only Apple managed to increase sales. But other PC manufacturers sales decline is much more significant than on the smartphone market.

There is no expectation that the global situation will improve in the near future, so major brands are actively working with distributors on a “prudent production forecast.” It is assumed that the decrease in demand will continue until the second half of next year.