China’s smartphone industry to remain under pressure in 2023 as supply chain disruption and economic headwinds swirl
- Buying a new phone will not be a priority for many people this year, according to an IDC analyst
- Slowing consumer demand and supply chain disruption are still impacting China’s smartphone market
China’s smartphone industry is set for a tough 2023 and is not expected to see meaningful growth until 2024 amid global supply chain disruption and weak consumer spending at home, analysts have warned.
Total smartphone shipments in China may have shrunk 10 per cent in 2022 to 285 million units, according to a forecast by industry research firm IDC. Headwinds will remain strong in 2023, according to Will Wong, a Singapore-based IDC analyst.
Buying a new phone will not be a priority for people this year, with the more affluent choosing to travel overseas with pandemic restrictions lifted while less affluent consumers limit their spending, Wong explained. “The Chinese smartphone market is only expected to see full-year growth in 2024,” he added.
China’s latest market data showed that November, traditionally a peak season for phone buying thanks to the Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, was a dud. The country’s smartphone shipments in November slumped 36 per cent year on year to 22.2 million units, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a scientific research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In the first 11 months, sales were down 23.6 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the CAICT report, published on Wednesday.
The 2022 November smartphone sales figure was “the worst November sales since 2015”, according to a separate report by consulting firm CINNO Research last Friday. It also marked the tenth consecutive year-on-year decline since February 2022, according to the CINNO report.