Smartphone Sales Down 22 Percent In Q2, the Worst Performance In a Decade (arstechnica.com) 84
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Canalys has some gruesome new numbers out for the North American smartphone market in Q2 2023, detailing what it's calling the "worst quarterly performance for over a decade." Q2 has plummeted 22 percent, year over year, and with these numbers, Canalys is predicting the smartphone market will be down 12 percent overall in 2023.
Apple is down 20 percent for Q2 and still in a dominant position with 54 percent market share. Samsung is down 27 percent, in second place overall with 24 percent market share in Q2 2023. Motorola is next with a 25 percent decline and only 8 percent market share. TCL, a TV company that feels like it only briefly dabbled in smartphones, is the single biggest loser, down 30 percent, with 5 percent market share.
Only a single company survived this quarter unscathed, and it's actually Google! The company might be at the bottom of the smartphone charts, but Pixel phone sales are up 59 percent, earning Google 4 percent of the market. It was the same story last year, when Google jumped from 1 to 2 percent. In a few quarters, the company might hit fourth place. The biggest loss on the chart is actually "others," down 43 percent, likely representing the further consolidation of the Android market. These are your OnePluses, your HMD/Nokias, and trashy pre-paid vendors like Blu.
Apple is down 20 percent for Q2 and still in a dominant position with 54 percent market share. Samsung is down 27 percent, in second place overall with 24 percent market share in Q2 2023. Motorola is next with a 25 percent decline and only 8 percent market share. TCL, a TV company that feels like it only briefly dabbled in smartphones, is the single biggest loser, down 30 percent, with 5 percent market share.
Only a single company survived this quarter unscathed, and it's actually Google! The company might be at the bottom of the smartphone charts, but Pixel phone sales are up 59 percent, earning Google 4 percent of the market. It was the same story last year, when Google jumped from 1 to 2 percent. In a few quarters, the company might hit fourth place. The biggest loss on the chart is actually "others," down 43 percent, likely representing the further consolidation of the Android market. These are your OnePluses, your HMD/Nokias, and trashy pre-paid vendors like Blu.
is it some /. editor's ocd? (Score:2, Interesting)
...because we see almost like clockwork announcements that
- the PC market is doomed
- the console market is doomed
- the cellphone market is doomed.
In rotation, about every 8 months.
WTF - you realize that the sky really isn't falling?
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If the console market is doomed, that isn't a bad thing. The video game industry desperately needs another 1983 to weed out the garbage and companies that do nothing but add fees and DRM. If the big gaming companies imploded, like Epic, it would only make things a lot better with a lot of indie people coming in with cool new stuff. Remember how much new stuff Origin Systems made in the 80s and 90s? Like that.
The PC market is not going to ever disappear. Tablets are great for media consumption, phones a
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Same old stuff each year. IMHO, the biggest reason I jumped to an iPhone 14 from a previous one is that iPhone models 13 and newer have AES-256 encryption and my old one only had AES-128.
Did not know that. Still not a reason to upgrade my iphone 7 it still works and isn't broken
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Did not know that. Still not a reason to upgrade my iphone 7 it still works and isn't broken
Even people with broken phones that still work are not upgrading. I've seen so many androids and iphones with busted up screens. Sometime, I wonder how they are still working.
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Glass is separate from the touch sensitive layer, and the actual display layer. So just because glass is broken doesn't mean you lose any functionality.
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I figured it was something like that.
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The main reason to upgrade something as old as an iPhone 7 is network coverage. Newer phones support additional bands that your iPhone 7 doesn't work on. If you don't travel much and your cell network still has acceptable coverage of your neighborhood you're fine, but if you regularly go to more remote locations you'll want a phone that also works on the added bands.
The next mass extinction event for smartphones will come when the cellular companies start to sunset 4G LTE coverage and move everybody to 5G.
Re:is it some /. editor's ocd? (Score:5, Interesting)
There is one market that PC makers are ignoring, which can be something that would be a barn-burner. It wouldn't be as popular as a smartphone, but it would be something every household would buy... and would be nice if portable as well.
What would be nice to have is a home server. This would consist of a router/firewall, a Wi-Fi access point, a multi-drive NAS which supports HDDs and NVMe SSDs, a 4-6 port Ethernet switch, a GPU bank that can be used for an eGPU, or via some network protocol, another drive array just for backups (perhaps using S3 so object locking can be used), video playback, NVR, and a place to have one's cloud drives, so one doesn't have to toss the Dropbox client on every machine... just use the Dropbox share on the server. Of course, cloud backups with a good list of providers is a must, as well as syncing. A portable version could use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi direct for serving files, and be combined with a cellular modem so it can be used as a hotspot.
Bonus points for VLANs and other more advanced stuff.
The goal is a server that does everything. Synology and QNAP NAS models are getting there, but what is needed is something like an Apple Time Capsule, but updated with RAID, SSD caching, syncing to a cloud provider, object locking, and other items needed to protect against ransomware, but be very easy to use for nontechnical people.
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The things you suggest are far above the nontechnical level.
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A lot of it, yes. However, something like an Apple Time Capsule where it can be plopped on a LAN, configured, backups set on clients, and the user can walk away and know their stuff is backed up would be a nice thing to have. Synology and QNAP appliances come close, but it would be cool to merge that with the router/firewall, so there is only just one appliance needed for all these toys.
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The things you suggest are far above the nontechnical level.
And already exists. You can easily get small form factor PC that have dual NICs. At that point anything you want to do (VLAN's, storage, et al) is just in software (ESXi, FreeNAS, et al). If you want more NICs you can get a small form factor case and a normal ITX/mATX or even ATX motherboard and PCI-e cards to your hearts content. The thing is, it's not very popular outside of enthusiast and professional circles and most people have home labs of whatever spare hardware they can get their hands on. That's ju
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Most people are not even aware that they could actually use something like that. Regardless, it will never exist unless it has government spyware in it like Microsoft has.
If I were to create something like that (I can), and showed reasonable success at it, I would be taken out of business faster than you can say, "that is illegal". The market would be taken from me because laws are only enforced if you have money; otherwise, hire a lawyer and play the odds with a jury. That is not a reasonable business envi
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/. is not the author.
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/. picks the stories they post, last time I checked.
Thus I said EDITOR's ocd, not AUTHOR's.
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All of those markets are shrinking, and for the same reason. The products are all mature now, so people don't replace them as often as they once did.
In the early days of smartphones you got a new one every year or two because the new model was a big improvement over what you already had. We have now reached the point where a three or four year old smartphone is still good enough. Support lifetimes have also gradually gotten longer, and there are rumors that Google is planning a dramatic increase to seven ye
Phones Aren't Breaking Fast Enough (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone call Apple.
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I wonder what the effect of longer support timeframes is. Google is up to 5 years now, and rumours are that the Pixel 8 will be 7 years. How many people actually keep using a phone for 7 years though?
Perhaps once the EU forces everyone to have a replicable battery, 7 years might become the norm.
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I'm old enough to remember when people sat on their iPhones and were mad even though they *didn't* break
New economic indicator (Score:5, Interesting)
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Joke all you want but disposable income is the biggest indicator of the economy. And there is nothing more disposable than hookers. (Services, not the hookers themselves).
When the economy is booming so are the hookers. When the hookers start complaining about not enough work... get ready for a downturn.
Sex workers complain sales are down as inflation continues to pound the economy
https://nypost.com/2023/08/05/... [nypost.com]
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Makes sense, the first thing people cut back when money gets tight is on services they can take care of themselves.
not different enough (Score:4, Insightful)
It's because the iPhone 15 is not different enough for me to replace my iPhone 12. Though I am now getting targeted ads on e.g. X in iOS with a direct iPhone 12 vs iPhone 15 comparison! But it's funny because they actually look indistinguishable at first glance. Upgrade to this thing that looks exactly like the thing you already have!
Re:not different enough (Score:5, Funny)
Well, 15 is much hotter than 12 when in use. And you're holding it wrong.
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> 15 is much hotter than 12 when in use
They should be selling like literal hot-cakes in Canada then.
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But ... but ... the bigger number ...
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if it weren't for planned obsolescence enforced through software updates i'd still be using my iphone 4s
it's a phone.. it can text, browse whatever dumb site, send email etc... they've been plenty good enough for us grumpy old luddites for quite some time.
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For smartphones, progress is measured by camera and pixel count. The initial idea was to make phone calls. Now it's a smart camera that can make phone calls.
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The drop for Apple is less than the industry average, so citing only the iPhone as the reason for the drop does not follow.
Greed (Score:3)
20 years ago an expensive phone was $300. Now I just paid around $1800 after tax for some melted sand and metal with a fruit stanped on it.
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Oh is yhat ohw it's spailed?
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Mod up.
Re:Greed (Score:5, Funny)
I was going to say ...well your the stupid one...
but you can't even spell "stamped"
As opposed to misspelling "you're"?
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We need a "Murphy's Law" for that one.
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quonset's Law: "The chance of some Grammar Nazi correcting someone while misspelling "your/you're", "its/it's" or "there/their/they're" in their scathing reply is 1"
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We do. It's called Muphry's Law [wikipedia.org].
Re: Greed (Score:2)
It's stampede which used to happen way back when it was Black Friday, and a new iphone just got announced
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Yes you do. I believe we call it the 'shiny' syndrome. Must have the shiny.
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The price would be somewhat justifiable if the features improved in line with the cost. For example, some high end smartphones can replace cameras now. Not high end mirrorless models with expensive lenses and expert operators, for for point-and-shoot, even in the 1000-1500 Euro range, phones are competitive. So if you like taking photos and don't need to spend an additional 1000 Euro on a separate camera, you can maybe justify a high end phone, where the image sensor and optics are a significant part of the
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It has gotten less expensive, relatively speaking. Look, the phone in your pocket is so, SO much more powerful than the phone that you bought 10 years ago it's not even funny. The phone in your pocket is more powerful than a lot of desktop computers that you've paid that much for during your lifetime.
Tech gets cheaper for the same thing over time, but you're not using the same thing you did before. Android or Apple, Samsung or Google, they're packing more into a phone than we could've dreamed when the first
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20 years ago, I paid $800 for a Motorola TAC that had a piggyback PDA on it, then $500 for a Nokia 3110. Those were not cheap. Smartphones were relatively cheap around 2006, but now, people will happily part with a couple grand for a folding phone, mainly because it gives a lot more screen real estate, which is important for browsing or watching videos. So, we went from expensive devices, to cheap, and now the price is going back up. Wish we can see some real innovation for the high-zoot price... and mo
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The selling point is that it’s a phone and also a small tablet.
Sure. Maybe it’ll become a thing. Or maybe it’s like the car-boat. Why own a boat AND a car when you can own one vehicle that does both? People make cars that can work as boats. But for some reason they never caught on.
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I past $650 for my s22 last year. What exactly does your phone do that's worth $1,800?
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Your camera may be better but as far as communications device and media consumption, mine does that exactly the same way as yours. Now if taking pictures and making movies on your phone is a pillar of its use for you and it some how does that 3x better then my Samsung s22 then I guess so, but seems kind of unlikely it actually performs that task that much better.
But hey, if you like your device, that's what counts!
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There's plenty of inexpensive phones out there. They just don't have a piece of fruit stamped on the back.
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There's plenty of inexpensive phones out there. They just don't have a piece of fruit stamped on the back.
Or good cameras, good modems, good processors, good storage, good ram, good build quality.
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20 years ago an expensive phone was $300. Now I just paid around $1800 after tax for some melted sand and metal with a fruit stanped on it.
In 2004, Motorola was selling 'razr' thin phones for $449. The 2020 model with the foldable screen came with a $1499 MSRP.
Prices have kinda always been there for those willing to pay.
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20 years ago an expensive phone was $300. Now I just paid around $1800 after tax for some melted sand and metal with a fruit stanped on it.
20 years ago an expensive phone was not $300, They were still about $700 in 2003 dollars. The cheapest the market got was with the Blackberry Pearl in 2006 for $400.
Comparing a 2003 Nokia would be like comparing it to the equivalent 2023 Nokia, you can get a Nokia 105 for about $25.
Smartphones themselves have never been cheaper. You don't have to spend $1800 on an Iphone when a phone half the price does the same job without the expensive logo. Hell, you can get decent smart phones for under $200 these
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I can buy a 2 year old used flagship model today for 200-300 EUR.
Or the "current thing" new for over 1k, and that will often not include even a charger, much less cases, screen protectors and so on. Feature set is pretty much the same, and the used ones often come with a bunch of accessories, cases, protective screens and so on, since people who get a new one and sell their old one to finance a part of it every two years tend to take a good care of their phones to increase resale value.
On Google (Score:2)
If companies flooding the market with phones packaging apps nobody wants, nobody can uninstall? GOOD. One of the few things Google doesn't bugger up is selling phones that aren't locked down preventing installs of things like GrapheneOS.
Maybe one of the declining brands will break ranks and offer a removable battery instead of another decade of unwanted hardware bulimia, Anyone cooing over how thin a phone is reminds me of Zoolander fashionistas.
Consume, consume, consume, new, new, new!!!! (Score:2)
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I had my s7 until last year when it started to get harder to get reliable signals from the dwindling 4g towers that are being replaced with 5g towers. I'll keep my s22 for as long as I possibly can.
Sheeple are going off thin, fragile phablets (Score:4, Interesting)
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What's wrong with a Pixel A series? They appear to be decently durable and aren't too large.
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The Pixels are just slightly smaller phablets.
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Buy clothing with bigger pockets?
It sounds like what you want is a 4G compatible Nokia 3310. I think they actually make them, for vision impaired users and for sneaking into prison up your arse.
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That would solve just one of the problems with large, fragile phablet phones.
> It sounds like what you want is a 4G compatible Nokia 3310. I think they actually make them, for vision impaired users and for sneaking into prison up your arse.
But then when I get it into my cell, the porn is 80x60 monochrome.
Why Aren't Users Getting New 5G Phones? (Score:2)
The big new invention is 5G and only a minority of cell phone users have cell phones which can receive it. While those of us who live in the middle of nowhere can't get it and are so backward we wouldn't take advantage of it anyway, one would expect a massive market in urban areas--considering all the advertising cell phone manufacturers and carriers are doing hyping this.
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Nah, I'm good. I already got that 5G stuff in my left arm with the COVID shot.
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Coverage is still terrible. My wife has an iPhone with 5G support and it rarely works in 5G and we're in a college town. What's the point of buying a phone for 5G when it's not accessible?
5G is the only reason I've considered buying an upgrade for my iPhone XR, but it's just not worth it until networks expand a bit more.
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The big new invention is 5G and only a minority of cell phone users have cell phones which can receive it.
The problem is that the number of use cases that truly leverage 5G for the end user is even smaller.
I live in an area where 5G is basically the default...and I have a tendency to turn it off on my phone. Part of the upswing is smaller cells; they're literally putting 5G towers on top of telephone poles now, so they don't need to do the expensive land acquisition or power transmission drama classical towers required. The problem is that the speeds I get on 5G are very rarely any better than LTE, and while th
Forget the cost of living crisis (Score:3)
My guess (Score:5, Insightful)
1. The market is saturated at this point
2. New features are getting more and more frivolous
3. Prices are ridiculously high
Also ecosystem expenditure (Score:2)
Particularly with Apple, people probably think about more than just the phone when considering their upgrade cycles.
My upgrade cycle has been
2009 iphone 3GS
2011 iphone 4S
2014 iphone 6
2017 iphone 8
2023 iphone 14
but while the time between phone upgrades has slowed, in the later years I've also bought an Apple Watch and a couple of pairs of AirPods during that period.
Even now my current pair of AirPods have pretty shitty battery life, but I'm hol
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1. The market is saturated at this point
2. New features are getting more and more frivolous
3. Prices are ridiculously high
This in spades.
Much like the PC market that the pant-wetters have been crying about being destroyed, the mobile phone market is mature and people are not seeing a need to update every single year. Especially when they cost more than a high end laptop or gaming console. Like the PC market, it's not imploding either, just a different level of demand to which the market will find an equilibrium with.
The only point of order I'd like to make is that only certain models are stupidly expensive. When you stop
Why upgrade? (Score:2)
I can make calls, send texts, browse the web, watch videos - all with performance that seems more limited by the remote source than by the phone itself.
I just upgraded my smartphone (Score:1)
I just upgraded my smartphone from a samsung galaxy a8 to a samsung galaxy a54. My A8 lasted just over 6 years, and I upgraded it because it was no longer receiving updates and the volume when not on speaker had gotten low. Most of the specs are at least 2x better on the new phone and I now have 5G. In saying that... there is nothing earth shattering about the phone.
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The average hospitality worker or Amazon box flinger is likely buying a previous gen (i.e., iPhone 8 or 10) or low tier burner smart phone on a pre-paid plan from a carrier like Boost Mobile.
Better smart phones (Score:1)
10 years ago you were replacing smart phones every 1-2 years... usually do to battery degradation, water/moisture infiltration and wear & tear.
These days - you are getting 3-4+ years out of the higher tier smart phones. In fact the carriers are putting people on 3-year payment plans now. I was at the 3-1/2 yr mark with my Google Pixel 3XL until it face planted on a sidewalk and shattered the display (oddly enough it had done that plenty of times - probably hit a pebble or two). Otherwise, I had no re