Global Smartphone Market shipments to recover from last year’s 12% decline; expected to drop 5% in 2023

Every year the mobile industry witnesses the launch of a number of devices whether it’s the mid-range devices or the flagship devices almost every smartphone brand arrives with their new devices each year in the global market. Consumers have also started investing their money in good smartphones these days giving preference to the quality and features of the device.

Maybe that’s the reason that the smartphone industry is growing slowly but gradually to what it was in recent years. From 2017 when the shipments of smartphones remain over 20% below last year’s 12% decline in shipments, the global smartphone market is rising year by year. Recently Canalys has published a report as to which the smartphone market will recover this year with the easing decline at 5%.

According to the report, in 2023, 1.13 billion smartphones will be shipped which is expected to grow 4% to reach 1.17 billion units in the year 2024. Regions like Middle East, Africa and Latin America have return to growth at 9%, 3% and 2% respectively this year. Also, one in three smartphones in 2024 will be sold in the Asia Pacific region while as per Sanyam Chaurasia, Senior Analyst at Canalys, “ This region will also witness some of the fastest growth at 6% year-over-year, driven by resurging demand in India, Southeast Asia and South Asia.”

Although it is said that AI capabilities on smartphones will have limited impact in driving high end smartphone upgrades in 2024 but a real growth in premium devices could be seen in 2024-2025 when AI features and use cases become compelling enough to motivate upgrades.

It is also expected that with improving business conditions in 2024 some of the Chinese brands like Honor, Transsion and Xiaomi will be aggressively expanding their business outside Greater China.