Samsung still king amid smartphone market’s ‘worst Q3’ in years

Samsung has maintained its position as the leading global smartphone vendor with 22 per cent market share, while the overall market experienced its worst Q3 for sell-in shipments since 2014.

According to research firm Canalys, Samsung held onto the top spot through heavy promotions to reduce its inventory.

The vendor was followed by Apple with 18 per cent market share, then Xiaomi with 14 per cent, OPPO with 10 per cent and vivo with 9 per cent.

Samsung’s continued dominance comes as the global smartphone market declined for the third quarter in a row, with sell-in shipments falling 9 per cent year-on-year – its worst Q3 result since 2014, the research firm claimed.

“The smartphone market is highly reactive to consumer demand and vendors are adjusting quickly to the harsh business conditions,” said Canalys analyst Amber Liu.

“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.

“The pricing strategy of new products is cautiously crafted, even for Apple, to avoid significant pushback from consumers who now tend to be very sensitive to any price hike.”

Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia added that demand is not showing signs of improvement for the fourth quarter of this year and the first half of 2023 and therefore vendors need to have a prudent production forecast.

“Going into the sales season, consumers who have been delaying purchases will expect steep discounts and bundling promotions as well as significant price reductions on older generation devices,” he said.

“Compared to the strong demand period of the previous year, a slow but steady festive sale is anticipated in Q4 2022. However, it will be too soon to see the upcoming Q4 as the real turning point of market recovery.”  

The global smartphone market's forecasted decline comes as fellow research firm IDC crowned Samsung as the "gold standard" for next year's global foldable smartphone market outlook.