World is finally buying more phones and prices are rising
- Reference: 1713187812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/15/idc_global_smartphone_sales/
- Source link:
Preliminary sales data for calendar Q1 was [1]published by IDC today , showing that total shipments of phones into the channel grew 7.8 percent year-on-year to 289.4 million – this is the third consecutive quarter of expansion.
The industry is "not completely out of the woods," said the analyst, as many households continue to weigh up budgets amid a strained economy in many parts of the globe, although the upward direction of travel is clear.
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Samsung leaped to the top of the market again, according to IDC, after its shipments declined more slowly than Apple. Samsung was down 0.7 percent in Q1 to 60.1 million, and Apple plunged 9.6 percent to 50.1 million iPhones.
[3]
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In the final quarter of 2023, Apple had seized the top spot. The company is wrestling with greater competition in China and efforts by the government to steer local businesses toward homegrown brands.
Ryan Reith, IDC group veep for the Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, said: "While IDC expects these two companies to maintain their hold on the high end of the market, the resurgence of Huawei in China, as well as notable gains from Xiaomi, Transsion … and vivo will likely have both OEMs looking for areas to expand and diversify."
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Xiaomi's shipment growth was recorded by IDC as 33.8 percent to 40.8 million units, and Transsion was up 84.9 percent to 28.5 million phones. OPPO was the only top five Chinese vendor to see a decline, falling 8.5 percent to 25.2 million.
[6]Greener, cheaper, what's not to love about a secondhand smartphone?
[7]Bullitt Group had $256 cash in the bank at the end, PWC reveals
[8]Duo face 20 years in prison over counterfeit iPhone scam
[9]Euro shoppers popping more and more premium phones in the basket
Huawei still hasn't managed to barge its way back into the top five, although its Mate P60 has lit up the Chinese market, despite the best efforts of the US government to erect trade barriers for chip exports to the country. Google also pulled Huawei's access to the Android operating system.
The sanctions continue to restrict Huawei's business operations in the West. However, they have generated a wave of nationalism in China that is spurring consumers and businesses to opt for local brands. This loss of traction is meaningful for Apple because China – the largest smartphone consumer in the world – has had something of a love affair with the luxury goods maker.
Apple CEO Tim Cook took a high-profile trip to China last month to open a massive new Apple Store in Shanghai, the second largest on the planet.
One dynamic that holds well for Apple revenues is that, according to IDC's data, average sales prices were on the up in Q1 "as consumers opt for more expensive devices knowing they will hold onto their devices for longer."
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Users are now [11]keeping their smartphones for 40-plus months , and this is a trend that is hurting the secondhand market as fewer phones find their way into the refurbished sector, according to previous research. Trade-ins continue but this is a fraction of the total used inventory available.
So for those who can afford to do so, buying premium phone hardware seems to be the way to go. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS52032524
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zh1PGSI47O4KquZoqiIfPQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zh1PGSI47O4KquZoqiIfPQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zh1PGSI47O4KquZoqiIfPQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zh1PGSI47O4KquZoqiIfPQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/refurbished_phones_survey/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/12/bullitt_group_had_200_cash/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/21/counterfeit_iphone_scam/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/20/euro_phones_figures_canalys/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zh1PGSI47O4KquZoqiIfPQAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/23/second_hand_device_market/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I’ve had three Chinese phones, one was an android made to look like an IPhone but with the Android logo on the back instead of an apple. That i used for casual browsing and surprising people at parties when I took the back off and then the battery out.
The second was a doogee which wasn’t actually that bad but suffered because the manufacturer could update the firmware without having any input from me.
The third is a Xiaomi Redmi phone that I have (for one of my 2 phones) which has a privacy policy for using everything. A message will pop up asking you if you accept the privacy policy for almost everything before you use them. If you think that doesn’t sound too bad it comes up on the Calculator, the Clock etc. The thing states that:
“In order to provide personalised services Calculator needs to connect to the internet. Before using calculator you must read and agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Agree?
What is it going to offer as a personalised service on my calculator? Is it going to tell me that Bryan actually had a prawn cocktail starter which he denies when used to split the bill? Apps will shut down randomly and without warning which is bloody annoying, the no root firewall is a good example of that. Despite selecting that you want VLC as the default music player, when I try and play anything it will use the inbuilt app first instead. Oh and that inbuilt app will also have a privacy policy.
Also someone else on here told me of a creepy hidden system app
Have you looked at the FM Radio app in the settings App section? There are two listed, your first is the Radio and I would suspect that this is actually the one that will run the radio. The other more suspect one is a “FM Radio Services” which has access to my microphone and that’s not something I can deny it. Why does a radio need to use my microphone, a bit creepy that. Then if you look deeper at it, why is the FM radio trying to connect to the internet which it does according to my firewall?
Also set your apps in Settings to show system apps and scroll right down to the bottom of the app list. You’ll find if your phone is like mine an app with an Android app icon and the name is three Chinese characters as the name. This has access to the Camera, Microphone, Storage and Telephone, all of which again would be permissions you can’t stop access to. If you weren’t paranoid before you probably are now.
I found that hidden system app and looked up the translation of those characters after reading that and it comes out as “Radio” in English. Appears to be different to the FM Radio app which has a privacy policy too.
Maybe the Chinese don’t mind all of that but it buggs the crap out of me.
Why is this good news ?
Isnt it strage that words like "finally" are applied to a raise in sales for short lived tech goods, even when said goods dont give too much increase in customer/user value for several years now ?
Sure, memory,camera resolution, display resolution (whatever the advantage might be to have a more power consuming display with a higher resolution thats still mechanically around 6 inches) and processor power were increased and sometimes even the battery was augmented (which doesnt increase battery life due to the power needs of the other augmentations). But if you dont put your "smart"phone into something like motorolas laptop-alike case, whats your advantage except bragging possibility ?
I assume the surge is in part generated by failing unreplaceable batteries and similar designed to self destruct / technically not quite up to spec hardware parts.
In my opinion, its only natural that samsung does not benefit too much from the sudden surge in sales as they have basically destroyed too much of what made the brand attractive in the beginning. Hardware quality, value for money, sturdiness and AI (Annoyment Index) with the universally disliked bixby and other uninstallable cruftware as well as the usual interface muddlefications both from samsung and android.
It is understandeable that people tend to buy a cheaper phone with a few issues less and a price tag way below samsung or other "prime" brands.
Much more so if you have a government that seems to be hell bent on destroying any kind of economy except birdshredders and electroimmobility.
China
Chinese brands sell most of their wares at home and foreign brands are artificially hampered there with legislation, taxes and regulatory harassment. It's time we returned the favor.
How about requiring Chinese phones to be quarantined for 18 months at our ports before they're allowed to be sold?
"The industry is "not completely out of the woods,""
If being out of the woods means year-on-year growth of sales and profit then either the industry or the users are buggered - and I guess it will be the users when the only way left to sell new phones in the quantities required by investors is to hobble the old ones.