IDC: Smartphone Sales Declined 14.6 Percent in Q1

The market researchers at IDC reported today that smartphone sales have fallen year-over-year for the seventh consecutive quarter, and that this decline was even worse than its original estimate. Hardware makers sold 268.6 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2023, IDC says, a decline of 14.6 percent YOY.

“The industry is going through a period of inventory clearing and adjustment,” IDC research director Nabila Popal said. “While we are optimistic about recovery by the end of the year, we still have a tough 3-6 months ahead. Barring unforeseen elements, IDC expects the market to cross into positive territory in the third quarter and see healthy double-digit growth by the holiday quarter.”

We’ll see. For now, all of the biggest players in the smartphone market have seen unit sales contract. Yes, even Apple.

Samsung was the biggest smartphone maker in the world again, as it was in Q4 and all of 2022: it sold 60.5 million units, good for about 22.5 percent market share. But that was a decline of 18.9 percent from the 74.6 million units it sold in the year-ago quarter.

Apple was again number two, as it was in Q4 and all of 2022: it sold 55.2 million units, garnering 20.5 percent market share in the quarter. That represents a decline of just 2.3 percent over the 56.5 million units it sold in the same quarter one year ago.

Once again, three Chinese firms—Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo—accounted for the remainder of the top five smartphone makers. Xiaomi sold 30.5 million units (11.4 percent market share, down 23.5 percent), OPPO sold 27.4 million units (10.2 percent market share, down 6.7 percent), and vivo sold 20.5 million units (7.6 percent market share, down 18.8 percent).

I guess the other way to look at this is that 79.5 percent of all smartphones sold in the quarter run Android.