The world's largest smartphone market is not the United States. Heck, the U.S. isn't even number two. China is number one followed by India with the U.S. in third place. But the Chinese smartphone market did not have a great 2022 and growth is not expected this year either according to analysts. The Chinese market might not show any growth until 2024 thanks to issues with the supply chain and weak consumer spending.
Research firm IDC estimates that smartphone shipments in China declined by 10% in 2022 to 285 million units. According to the English-language, IDC analyst Will Wong , sees wealthy Chinese consumers not bothering to upgrade their phones this year and are more interested in overseas travel. Other consumers in China are just looking to reduce their spending."The Chinese smartphone market is only expected to see full-year growth in 2024," Wong says.
A separate report from CINNO Research said that the November 2022 sales in China were the worst for the month since 2015. The research firm says it was the 10th consecutive month of lower year-over-year growth in Chinese smartphone sales. This trend started in February 2022 and is still continuing. CINNO analyst Charlie Zhou pointed out that"Despite the Singles' Day and other promotional activities, the market is far less enthusiastic than in previous years." All of the top five smartphone brands in China suffered huge annual declines in sales during November., the top brand, sold 4.8 million iPhone units that month while the largest decline in sales during Singles' Day was the 36.2% plunge by fifth-ranked Vivo to 3.2 million units.
Chinese smartphone sales in 2022 will total 250 million to 260 million units according to CINNO. This would make it the worst year for smartphone sales in the world's top market since 2015. CINNO's Zhou doesn't expect a quick recovery for the Chinese smartphone market this year."Industrial production and market consumption will take time to recover gradually, and the impact is expected to continue through the first half of 2023.