Smartphone production seriously declined in the third quarter of 2022

2022 is probably not the best year for smartphone manufacturers. Indeed, the industry is facing a decline in demand, linked to particularly turbulent activity.

Between a Covid epidemic that is not ending in China, the Ukrainian conflict, and worrying inflation, consumers seem less inclined to change their motive. As many factors as the manufacturers classify among the “strong economic headwinds”.

This obviously has an effect on production, as the analyst firm Trendforce points out in its latest report. We discover that 289 million smartphones left the factories between July and September. This is approximately 0.9% less than the previous quarter, but above all 11% less than the same quarter of the previous year.

Samsung still dominates the market, with around 64.2 million units produced alone, representing 22.2% market share over this period.

There is even a 3.9% increase in production compared to the previous quarter. The South Korean giant has however decided to slow down the pace in order to sell the models already manufactured. We can therefore expect this figure to drop in the next three months.

It’s heating up at Apple

Apple seems to borrow the opposite dynamic. 50.8 million units still left the firm’s factories, which represents 17.6% market share over the period in question. But the Californian giant intends to increase its iPhone production, especially the Pro versions, in order to be ready for the end-of-year celebrations.

The report announces that in the fourth quarter of 2022, one in four new smartphones manufactured will be an iPhone. This could represent up to 24.6% market share over the last three months of the year. Suffice to say that the production lines will heat up.

The third place is occupied by Xiaomi, which includes the production of Redmi, Poco or even Black Shark. Next come the other Chinese competitors: Oppo (which includes OnePlus and Realme) and Vivo.

The firm specifies that the Chinese brands intend to strengthen their independence vis-à-vis American technologies. This is already confirmed with the development of in-house processors, such as the MariSilicon X at Oppo or the V2 at Vivo.