According to the latest report from Strategy Analytics' Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone shipments fell -7% YoY to 291 million units in Q2 2022. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of annual decline by smartphone volumes. COVID disruption and geopolitical issues adversely impacted smartphone market in the second quarter of this year. Meanwhile, unfavorable economic conditions continued to weaken consumers’ demand on smartphones and other non-essential products.
We estimate Samsung shipped 63 million smartphones and topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 22% share in Q2 2022. It is the vendor’s highest second quarter performance by market share since 2020. Demand continued to remain strong for the newly launched flagship Galaxy S22 series, especially the higher-priced S22 Ultra model. Apple shipped 48 million iPhones worldwide, up +3% YoY, for 16% global marketshare in Q2 2022. This is the highest second quarter market share for Apple over the past ten years, at the expense of leading Chinese brands who are hampered by the sluggish performance in both home and overseas market. Apple had a good quarter, led by iPhone 13 series which continued to ramp up volumes in US, China and other key markets.
Xiaomi shipped 40 million smartphones and took third place with 14% global marketshare in Q2 2022, down from 17% a year ago. Xiaomi suffered from the geopolitical uncertainties in Europe. China and India market also delivered a mixed bag for the Chinese brand. OPPO (OnePlus) held fourth spot and captured 10% global smartphone marketshare during Q2 2022. Vivo stayed fifth with 9% global smartphone marketshare in Q2 2022. OPPO (OnePlus) and Vivo both lost ground in most markets, as 5G competition from Honor and other smartphone competitors intensified sharply in China and other markets.
Global competition among other major smartphone brands, beyond the top-five, was fierce during Q2 2022. Transsion, Honor, Lenovo-Motorola and Huawei all outperformed the overall market but delivered different patterns. Transsion regained the leading position from Samsung in Africa region this quarter. Honor held firmly in China being the largest vendor for the first time ever and continued to ramp up in overseas markets. Lenovo-Motorola stabilized the performance in America region and made progress in Europe and Asia Pacific. Realme stayed in the top ten list but delivered a mixed performance and lost ground in China, Latin America, Central Eastern Europe and Africa Middle East region. Among top ten brands, there are eight Chinese brands. However, all these Chinese brands combined posted -13% annual decline, underperforming total market and the top two players.
We forecast global smartphone shipments to contract -7% to -8% YoY in full-year 2022. Geopolitical issues, economy downturn, price inflation, exchange rate volatility, and Covid disruption will continue to weigh on the smartphone market during the second half of 2022. All these headwinds would continue through the first half of next year, before the situation eases in the second half of 2023. Samsung and Apple would continue to outperform and remain top two places. Chinese brands need to stabilize the performance in China market and explore new growth engine to terminate the falling track.
Exhibit 1: Global Smartphone Shipments & Marketshare in Q2 2022 [1]
[1] Numbers are rounded.