The analyst company Canalys has said that it thinks it’s seeing the early signs of a recovery in the global smartphone markets after six consecutive quarters of decline since the start of 2022. The same company announced just a week ago, that the global PC market could be headed for a recovery as the decline had slowed there too.
According to Canalys, ‘gloomy demand’ has finally started to impact smartphone leaders Apple and Samsung. This saw both of these shipment market shares decline between the first and second quarters but year-over-year they both have exactly the same shipment market share of 17% (Apple) and 21% (Samsung).
The other top players, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo all did well in the second quarter compared to the first quarter with Xiaomi and vivo increasing their shares while OPPO decline ever so slightly. However, year-over-year, Xiaomi fell from 14% to 13%, OPPO remained at 10%, and vivo went from 9% to 8%.
Commenting on the early signs of recovery, Le Xuan Chiew, Analyst at Canalys, said:
‘The smartphone market is sending early signals of recovery after six consecutive quarters of decline since 2022. Smartphone inventory has begun to clear up as smartphone vendors prioritized cutting inventory of old models to make room for new launches.’
‘There are indications that vendors are preparing for market recovery in the further future. They are looking to hedge key component prices to combat potential prices hike, given the present inflationary conditions, leading to the recent increase in component orders. On the other hand, vendors have not stopped investing in manufacturing and have a direct presence in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India, which will be a strong driving force for sustainable growth.’
It’ll be interesting to see whether Canalys" analysis on this matter comes true. After six quarters of declines, it does look difficult for there not to be a recovery sometime soon.
Source: Canalys