Lowest PC and Smartphone sales of all time
This may be good news for the planet and the climate emergency, but less so for producers. PC and smartphone sales have had a very bad year in 2022…
-16% for Canalys… -17% for IDC… -16.2% for Gartner… -15% for CounterPoint Research… For once, analysts are likely to agree on the significance of the PC market downturn in 2022. The glitch in a record-distorting 2021 perception. Blame it, too, on a very poor fourth quarter and performance record drop -29% despite the holiday season!
” Anticipation of global recession, rising inflation and rising interest rates have had a major impact on PC demand explains Mikako Kitagawa, director of analysis at Gartner. ” Since many consumers already have relatively new PCs purchased during the pandemic, the lack of affordability makes the motivation to buy less. causing consumer PC demand to drop to its lowest level in years. As for the business PC market, it was also affected by the economic slowdown. PC demand among businesses started to decline in Q3 2022, but the market has now gone from ‘softening’ to ‘relaxing’. Business buyers are extending the lifecycle of PCs and delaying their purchases, which means enterprise market is unlikely to return to growth before 2024. »
Jitesh Ubrani, research director for IDC’s mobility and consumer device tracker also explains that ” average selling prices across many channels also fell as excess channel supply in recent months prompted discounts in an effort to stimulate demand. However, despite these attemptsPC and component inventory management will remain a key issue in the coming quarters and potentially affect the selling price further. »
For Ishan Dutt, principal analyst at Canalys, “ 2022 was a tough year for the global PC market. This decline is all the more striking because the same period in 2021 saw record shipments of laptops and desktops. With rising energy and commodity costs in key markets like the US and Europe, spending on big-ticket items like PCs has decreased as consumers are willing to delay upgrades. At the same time, public and private sector budgets are tightening amid rising interest rates, slowing hiring and an anticipated recession earlier in the year. A December 2022 survey of around 250 channel partners shows just that 60% expect their PC business revenue to remain flat or decline by 2023. This difficult environment for the PC industry is expected to last into the second half of this year. »
PC sales are not so great
However, as Ryan Reith, group vice president at IDC’s Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers points out, we should still be wary of jumping to conclusions. ” Sure, the consecutive quarter’s declines definitely paint a grim picture for the PC market, but that’s really a matter of perception. 2021 is approaching historic levels for PC shipments, so any comparisons are bound to be skewed. There’s no doubt that the ups and downs of the PC market will go down in history, but there are still plenty of opportunities. We strongly believe the market has the potential to recover in 2024 and we also see a lot of opportunities throughout the remainder of 2023. »
What convinced the manufacturers? Not really sure. Because the economic crisis ultimately helped consolidate the inculcation in the collective unconscious of environmentally responsible messages proliferating both with companies and individuals. ” You will have to store your equipment longer “…” Priority should be given to the used and refurbished equipment market “…” Digital must be more responsible and frugal »… When wallets suffer, these messages sound much better.
The fact remains that in fact – and contrary to what the numbers might lead one to believe – PC sales remain very high. With 292 million units sold all year round, according to IDC, volumes remain higher than before the pandemic. The PC market has just been in decline for over a decade.
As usual, there is some variation in the volume of units sold between analysts, not all of which account for the same machine (some don’t integrate Surface, iPad Pro, or Chromebook). So, for Gartner, 286 million PCs sold in 2022. Canalys counts 285 million machines sold over the year.
Slightly annoyed PC Podium
Despite this difference, various analysts confirm the same manufacturer’s podium. lenovo took first place worldwide (with between 23% and 24% of the market) followed by MOBILE PHONE (between 19% and 20% of the market), Dell Technologies (between 16.5% and 17%), fromApple (9.8% and 11% market),asus (7.4%) andAcer plant (5.5%).
Whatever the analyst, it is Apple that has suffered the most from the situation created by its new Macs in the M1 and M2 processors. If IDC sees Apple’s hardware sales growing by 2.5% in 2022, Gartner estimates that they have fallen by 10.2% and Canalys by 7.5%.
On the other hand, Dell and Acer are the two most affected players in 2022 with “-37%” in 2022 for Dell and “-41%” for Acer.
This partially explains why Dell has decided, according to Tom’s Guide, to refocus on its own network and online sales from its sites, leaving retailers like Fnac, Auchan or even Amazon behind!
As the quote at the beginning of the article suggests, the situation is not likely to improve significantly in 2023. Therefore, Gartner anticipates a decline in sales of 6.8% during 2023.
It doesn’t get any better on a smartphone!
Based on IDCsmartphone sales experienced their strongest quarterly decline in the fourth quarter of 2022 with sales decreased by 18.3%. compared to the same quarter of 2021! During 2022, the smartphone market will contract by 11.3%.
Chinese manufacturers seem to have the most influence. Samsung and Apple managed to sustain their sales and only recorded a yearly decline 4%there where Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo recorded average sales drop of about 20%.
Gartner, which also assesses a decline in smartphone sales in 2022 of around 11%, does not predict a significant increase in 2023. Analysts predict a decline in sales of around 4%.
According to Gartner, 1.28 billion smartphones were sold worldwide in 2022. Consumers keep their phones longer than expected, six to nine months, and switch from fixed to flexible contracts without significant new technology explains Ranjit Atwal, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. When we know these numbers aren’t enough to convince the planet…
