Components Shortage Sends Smartphone Market Into Decline

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Component shortages have been wreaking havoc on the tech industry since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and smartphones are no outlier. Decelerated production schedules have given way to smaller stock and delayed launches. All of this has resulted in a decline in smartphone sales in Q3 of 2021 compared to Q3 2020, Gartner reported today. According to numbers the research firm shared today, sales to consumers dropped 6.8 percent. A deficit in parts like integrated circuits for power management and radio frequency has hurt smartphone production worldwide.

"Despite strong consumer demand, smartphone sales declined due to delayed product launches, longer delivery schedule, and insufficient inventory at the channel," Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner, said in a statement accompanying the announcement. The analyst added that the production schedules of "basic and utility" phones were more affected by supply constraints than "premium" ones. As a result, premium smartphone sales actually increased during this time period, even though smartphone sales overall declined. Still, shoppers were left with limited options, Gartner noted. Samsung ended up winning the greatest market share (20.2 percent), thanks to its foldable smartphones. Apple's quarterly market share (14.2 percent) was aided by new features in its iPhones, namely the A15 processor and improvements to battery life and the camera sensor. Gartner also pointed to interest in 5G.

Circumstantial success.

[Ostracus]

The analyst added that the production schedules of "basic and utility" phones were more affected by supply constraints than "premium" ones. As a result, premium smartphone sales actually increased during this time period, even though smartphone sales overall declined.

I'm sure the "shareholder is everything" driven business market didn't mind.

Hoisted by Their Own Petard

[oldgraybeard]

So much for their risk assessment. And what was the contingency plan?

Great News!

[jnorden]

Great for planet Earth: Less toxic e-waste in a few years.
Great for driver safety: Less morons investigating the features of their shiny new devices while driving.
Maybe, even, people will play with their phones less and actually interact with the physical world more?
Phones *should* be simple, boring devices for making calls! In ancient days, even "ma bell" would never have told customers to upgrade their landline phones every 2 years!

Re:

[jimtheowl]

You make some good points, but it is not what people attached to their cell phones like to hear.

Re:

[Dutch Gun]

I was with you right up until you started your old man rant.. Of all the things my smartphone is used for, "making calls" is one of the least frequently used features. I enjoy having an e-book reader / audible player, GPS navigation device, camera, video recorder, messaging device, flashlight,alarm clock, web browser and much more in my shirt pocket, all for $400. When you think about it, it's a pretty amazing deal. I guess it's nice I can use it as a cell phone too.

That being said, I agree it's ridicul

Re: Great News!

[spyfrog]

Are going to peak? I think it already has peaked. When was the last phone that you bought that had a new killer feature? The only thing new is that newer models have a little more computing power - in most cases not noticable.

High Demand?

[fermion]

I generally buy a phone every year or so. I am certainly going to skip a generation this year. I suspect given no one knows what is ahead I am not the only one. The demand is likely driven by aggressive offers, some can just trade in an old phone for a new one. But this is a limited market.

Re:

[labnet]

I generally buy a phone every year or so

Why?
I'm using a 5 year old Samsung A5. OLED screen is still like new. Battery Life is still great.

Re:

[Osgeld]

its a 7 year old platform with the android equivalent of windows XP, probably runs great cause nothing on the planet supports it anymore

Re:

[MrL0G1C]

Eh? That doesn't make any sense, what isn't supported? - the camera? cpu? screen? speakers? usb port? GPS? motion sensors?

Most of what a phone does now has been around for years, why wouldn't it be supported? If Old hardware isn't supported then that smacks of deliberate hardware obsolescence.

Re:

[Osgeld]

dunno, any application written after android 4

Who cares about phones?

[50000BTU_barbecue]

IKEA doesn't have meatballs! Only veg or chicken. The chicken ones are marginal. The vegetable ones are good but you could launch me into orbit if you light a match near my ass after supper.

Re:

[Bert64]

Or due to a phone being a portable device that you generally use when you're away from home. If you leave home less often, you have less need for a phone.

Great!!

[Wolfier]

I hope it will make more people realise they don't *need* to upgrade their phones every year. At least 3 years should be the norm.

Re: Tell Apple not to make my phone obsolete then

[Camembert]

The iphone 5 was made for one year from september 2012 onwards. The processing power and RAM difference with a current model is tremendous. It is not a surprise that recent apps and OS donâ(TM)t run on it anymore.

Re:

[Bert64]

Apple aren't the worst offender when it comes to this, they are supporting as far back as the 6S (september 2015) with the latest version of iOS, which is a lot longer than most other manufacturers.

On the other hand, the idea of buying a "lowend smartphone" seems stupid... You could get a highend model that's a few years old for a similar price with likely a better featureset.

Re:

[hankwang]

What? A high-end model of a few years ago will generallly only be available as a second hand. With a worn-out battery and other parts that are subject to wear.

My previous smartphones were all worn out after about three years, each with a different failure mode. Touch screen became unresponsive; power button broken; volume button broken. I had the one with the broken power button replaced; then I botched a DIY battery replacement, so I was out 100 euros and still had a broken phone. Continued with the broken

Re:Tell Apple not to make my phone obsolete then

[Bert64]

I have iphone 7+ and 8+ both of which are working just fine. The only issue was the battery not lasting as long as it used to.
Getting a battery replacement was $30 (including installation by someone competent to do so) and they're both good as new afterwards.

The same shop that sold me the battery replacement also sells used phones in good condition and pretty cheap. On a budget i'd probably pick a good condition used iphone over a chinese nobrand android for the same price.

Demand? For What?

[dcw3]

Despite strong consumer demand,

Is there evidence of this? What new features would motivate me to spend ~$1100 on a similar "upgrade" to my iPhone X Max? Three generations later, and all I'd get would be a slightly better camera.

I would by one nowish

[Don'tJoin]

But there are no phones on the market I want. No decent manufacturer makes a good enough phone at a smaller form factor, except apple, but I do my best to stay away from the iOS environment.