India's smartphone shipments fall 6% to 151.6 million units

India’s smartphone shipments fell to 151.6 million units in 2022, declining by six percent compared with 2021, as per the reports from Canalys. The market also suffered its first-ever drop in shipments in the fourth-quarter holiday period, falling by 27 percent to 32.4 million.

Falling demand is causing great concern for the entire smartphone supply chain. While component supplies and cost pressures are easing, a few concerns remain within logistics and production, such as some emerging markets’ tightening import laws and customs procedures delaying shipments. Deep collaboration with channels to monitor the state of inventory and supply will be vital for vendors to identify short-term opportunities while maintaining healthy channel partnerships in the long run.

The global smartphone shipments fell by 17 per cent (year on year) in Q4 2022, with entire 2022 shipments declining by 11 per cent to fewer than 1.2 billion, a new report has shown. Despite shrinking demand and manufacturing issues in China's Zhengzhou, Apple reclaimed the top spot in Q4 and achieved its highest quarterly market share ever at 25 per cent, as per Canalys.

At the sametime, Samsung took the number one spot in the fourth quarter (Q4) for the first time since Q3 2017, shipping 6.7 million units for a market share of 21 per cent. The second place went to vivo, which shipped 6.4 million units, mainly via offline channels. India was better positioned to weather the global downturn than other markets. But domestic consumer spending cooled in the last few months of 2022.

Even during the festive season, the domestic market suffered a fall in transactions, retail spending and electronic imports.In 2022, consumers already had up-to-date technology that they had bought during the pandemic, thereby delaying further purchases. This led to smartphone brands struggling with inventory management because demand was subdued, says analysts.

The Indian economy started to feel the impact of the global economic slowdown toward the end of 2022. We are entering 2023 with economic indicators suggesting a sluggish performance in the short term.

But, in 2024, India is set to hold its general election and the government's strategy will be to boost consumers' purchasing power, even if inflation remains high. Going forward, we expect moderate growth in the Indian smartphone market in 2023 fuelled by a replacement cycle driven by 5G devices, state government deals, smartphone penetration and the introduction of new use cases," said Canalys.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Editor-in-chief- VARINDIA