According to our research, both global smartphone shipments (sell-in) and sales (sell-through) increased MoM, however the numbers are still below the volumes of 2021, indicating their yearly growths become negative.

The soft performance is mainly due to the strong economy headwinds such as inflation and currency exchange rate turbulence, on-going geopolitical tensions, as well as the weakening demand in multiple markets. Industry total inventory variance / changes increased this month, indicating the modest inventory building up by major OEMs this month.

In terms of brands, Samsung kept leading the market worldwide in August 2022, followed by Apple. Xiaomi caught Apple by shipment however its sale volume was still behind Apple. Other vendors on our top-10 list included OPPO, Vivo, Transsion, Honor, Realme, Lenovo-Motorola, and Huawei.

According to the latest report from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone shipments will decline -8% YoY at 1.25 billion units in 2022. A mild rebound is expected in 2H 2023, making full year volume back to the upwards track with 3% annual growth rate next year.