How iPhone 14 helped Apple beat Samsung to emerge as number one – Times of India

The global smartphone market declined by 18% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis to reach 304 million units in Q4 2022, even as it registered a 1% growth on quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, as per a new report. Apple replaced Samsung as the top smartphone player in the quarter, driven by the launch of iPhone 14 series.
Global smartphone shipment declines
As per the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, the 2022 global shipments declined by 12% to 1.2 billion units, which is the lowest since 2013, and the revenue declined by 9% to $409 billion, the lowest since 2017.
The market research firm said that the global smartphone market remained under pressure in Q4 2022 with a total of 303.9 million units shipped. Furthermore, the shipments for the full year declined to 1.2 billion units.

“The war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures, economic uncertainty and macroeconomic headwinds kept the consumer sentiment weak in 2022 while smartphone users reduced the frequency of their purchases,” senior analyst Harmeet Singh Walia said.
“The smartphone market remained under pressure in the fourth quarter of 2022 as the cost-of-living crisis, shortage in the labour market and a decline in consumers’ purchasing power resulted in double-digit declines in the shipments of each of the top five smartphone players,” Walia added.
How brands fared in 2022
Apple achieved its highest-ever global smartphone shipment, revenue and operating profit share in 2022. The company prevented a larger decline by registering a 1% growth becoming the only brand among the top five to do so despite economic and geopolitical turmoil. Chinese smartphone players suffered from domestic lockdowns.

“Having proficiently managed its production problems, Apple was able to weather a year already marred by economic and geopolitical turmoil better than other major smartphone players. Its iPhone Pro series continued performing well and its share of iPhone shipments could have been even higher if not for the production issues caused by the COVID-19 breakout at the Zhengzhou factory, which produces the vast majority of Pro series volumes. As a result, some Pro series volumes got pushed to January,” noted Jeff Fieldhack, research director at Counterpoint Research.
Apple outperformed a struggling smartphone market in terms of shipment, revenue and operating profit growth, in turn achieving its highest-ever shares of 18%, 48% and 85% in these metrics respectively, in 2022, the report highlighted.
Premium segment to the rescue
Apple benefited from the premium segment, “its primary constituency”, and was less severely affected as mature smartphone users are now choosing premium devices that last longer. In fact, the performance of Samsung’s flagship smartphones was stronger than market projections.

“Premiumisation can also be seen within the Android ecosystem and is being led by Samsung with its foldable smartphones. As a result, Samsung was the only top five OEM besides Apple to see a 1% growth in revenue, even though its shipments declined by 5% in 2022 and operating profit declined by 1%,” research director Tarun Pathak said.
When it comes to Chinese smartphone players, they suffered from domestic lockdowns for much of the year in addition to global economic and geopolitical issues.
“The shipments of Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo fell by more than 20% each. Despite offering premium phones at aggressive margins, Chinese brands are yet to make headway in the premium market and have not been able to capitalise completely on Huawei’s decline,” the market research said. Their revenue as well as operating profit saw double-digit declines.
Counterpoint Research says that the global smartphone market is likely to remain under pressure until the end of the first half of 2023 and start recovering thereafter.