The global smartphone market revenue fell 3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to around $100 billion in July-September period, dragged down largely by a fall in revenue and shipments of Chinese firms Vivo and Oppo. The two handset makers count China as their biggest market for smartphone sales and due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and economic issues, their revenue also fell during the quarter.
According to Counterpoint Research, Oppo’s revenue and average selling price of smartphones both fell 5% and 27% y-o-y, respectively, whereas Vivo’s revenue fell 43% y-o-y. For Oppo, shipments to China constitute about 40% of its total shipments, while for Vivo China contributes over half of its total shipments. In terms of shipments, the overall handset market saw a 12% y-o-y decline during the quarter.
Besides the fall in revenue and shipments, the average selling price of smartphones rose 10% y-o-y, which was largely contributed by growth in the premium handset segment despite economic uncertainty globally. Further, record shipment of 5G handsets at 46% of the overall handset shipments also added to the average selling price and helped restrict a steep fall in revenue.
“At over $80 billion, the revenue contribution of 5G handsets reached an all-time high of 80% of global handset revenues, up from 69% in the third quarter (July-September) of last year. In the same period, LTE (or 4G) handsets’ revenue contribution fell 10% to $19 billion,” said Harmeet Singh Walia, senior analyst at Counterpoint.
Amongst the handset makers, Apple saw a 10% y-o-y growth in revenue due to uptake in premium handset shipments especially iPhone 14 series as well as the pro iPhone models. “This shift from 4G to 5G has been led by Apple, which alone makes up for over half of all 5G revenues as over 95% of its phones are 5G-enabled,” Walia said. The average selling price of the handset maker also rose 7% in the July-September quarter.
Samsung, the second biggest handset maker in terms of revenue, saw a 27% y-o-y growth in revenue from 5G smartphones. However, the company’s revenue declined 4% during the quarter.
For Xiaomi, the handset revenue grew 4% y-o-y, largely contributed by its low-to-mid price smartphone bands, according to Counterpoint.
