Trendforce is blaming poor sales in the previous quarters for a production slowdown in the third quarter. Vendors have found it hard to clear up their inventories lately. Factors like the Russia-Ukrain war, political tensions between China and the US, and global economic headwinds have affected smartphone sales since the second quarter of this year. Companies started scaling back production in Q2 itself. The latest research report states the total production volume in Q2 and Q3 was pretty much the same. Vendor-wise, Samsung continues to lead the market with a total production of 64.2 million units. Despite a flat line across the industry, the Korean firm made more smartphones in Q3 than it did in Q2. It’s a minor 3.9 percent increase, though. Trendforce says this is a result of the company maintaining a conservative outlook and significantly scaling back production in the previous quarter. It may suffer a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline in Q4. Samsung is also expected to lose its top spot to Apple in the year-ending quarter. This happens almost every year as the latter releases its latest iPhone models in the fourth quarter. Trendforce projects Samsung’s market share to drop from 22.2 percent to 20.2 percent in Q4, while Apple’s share could grow from 17.6 percent to 24.6 percent. The iPhone maker’s growth could also affect Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. While they will retain their third, fourth, and fifth spots in the global market, respectively, their share could decline.
Apple may drive smartphone production growth in Q4 2022
Apple reportedly made 50.8 million iPhones in Q3 2022. Since its market share is estimated to increase significantly in Q4, you can expect an increase in production volume as well. And the increase could be big enough to offset declines from other brands. The latest research report estimates a 9.3 percent QoQ growth in production in the year-ending quarter, reaching 316 million units. That’s despite a slowdown from Samsung as well as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. The latter three are facing challenges in their global expansion, while the domestic market is already highly saturated. Honor is giving them tough competition in the Chinese market. Trendforce doesn’t expect the smartphone market to see an increase in demand before the second quarter of next year.
