Releases 2022 Q1 smartphone shipment report

Canalys today released smartphone sales figures for the first quarter of the year. As per tradition, the period tends to show a rather slow sales trend, after the binges of Black Friday and Christmas.

This year, however, the slowdown is more evident than usual and is attributable to various factors such as the war in Ukraine, the new lockdowns seen in China and the race to the top of world inflation. All of these events led to an 11% drop in smartphone shipments in the January-March 2022 quarter.

The first quarter tends to be slow, but this year there are additional factors (the war in Ukraine, new blockades in China, global inflation) that have led to an 11% drop in smartphone shipments. The two main manufacturers, Samsung and Apple, have released sought-after phones, which have helped them expand their market shares, while the other three in the Top 5 have dropped slightly.

Samsung is back in the lead with a 24% share, up from 19% in the holiday quarter and 22% in the first quarter of last year. As usual, the launch of the iPhones towards the end of the year caused Apple to surge in the fourth quarter, but Samsung claimed the top spot with strong sales of the Galaxy S22 flagships and solid demand for the Galaxy A series. Apple is also doing quite well. Despite reports of reduced production, the third-generation iPhone SE is a ‘major mid-range volume driver for Apple,’ analysts at Canalys write. Operators are demanding 5G phones to sell, and the SE (2022) is the cheapest 5G iPhone. The iPhone 13 series also continues to be a great seller.