Global smartphone sales fall 11%

Global smartphone sales in 2022 were less than 1.2 billion units, down 11% compared to 2021, according to statistics from market research agency Canalys.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai, known as Foxconn, explained that this drop was mainly due to the general economic recession.

In terms of the electronics industry, smartphones with the largest market scale remain consumer electronics products.

In terms of cloud networking products, the server market grew by more than 60% year-on-year in 2022 due to the easing of material shortages and the demand for servers by large cloud data center operators in North America. According to DIGITIMES Research statistics, they account for approximately 18 million units.

In the field of computer terminal products, in terms of tablet PCs, according to IDC statistics, the total worldwide shipment of tablet PCs in 2022 was 162.8 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3 percent.

On the other hand, in terms of PCs, according to Gartner’s analysis report, PC shipments in 2022 declined 16.2 percent year-on-year to 286.2 million units.

Primarily, this is because consumers have already purchased laptops during the pandemic.

From Hon Hai’s perspective, in anticipation of the global economic recession, intensifying inflation and rising interest rates, consumers are less motivated to buy new notebooks, and the upgrade boom in the commercial PC market has passed. As for components and other products, demand fluctuated depending on end-product sales.

Global smartphone sales

The electric vehicle (EV) sector has continued to grow significantly in 2022.

According to statistics from the DIGITIMES Research Center, the total global EV sales volume increased 49% year-on-year to 9.78 million units.

The top three markets are China, Europe and the United States, while China officially accounts for more than 60 percent.

The outstanding performance of the Chinese EV market is mostly due to a series of incentive policies offered by the local government, which resulted in an annual sales growth of 79 percent.

Meanwhile, the second largest market, Europe, was only affected by geopolitics and the annual sales growth rate was only 5 percent.

Finally, the annual growth rate of the largest market, the United States, was 48 percent.

This is mainly due to automakers introducing SUV and electric pickup truck models that consumers prefer, and car owners being eligible for car purchase subsidies.