The growth of the two global giants offset the declines of Chinese cellphone brands such as Xiaomi and Vivo in an industry that ended last year with flat $38 billion in revenue growth despite a 9% drop in shipments, market watchers said.
Market leader Samsung earned more than $8 billion in smartphone revenue last year, giving it a market share of 22% – up 3 percentage points from last year – as it benefited from a portfolio that covered all price points but where the premium segment was the main driver . according to data from Counterpoint Research.
Brick and mortar stores accounted for the bulk of the company’s sales, which has recently regained the top spot even in terms of volumes.
Apple’s revenue from Cupertino exceeded $6 billion last year, representing an 18% revenue share — an increase of 4 percentage points from 2021, according to Counterpoint.
By FY26, this is expected to rise to at least 300,000 new jobs, a third of which will be direct workers and another 200,000 indirect jobs.
The iPhone 13 was the best-selling smartphone for the company in 2022, driven by consumer hunger for high-end smartphones and Apple’s strong expansion in large format stores and festive discount sales.
IDC India said Apple’s 2022 revenue will reach $8.5 billion, of which 75% will be driven by iPhones, 22% by PCs and 3% by wearables.
Top Chinese brands Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo saw their revenues fall to more than $5 billion, more than $5.5 billion and more than $3 billion respectively by 2022, Counterpoint said. Xiaomi’s market share fell from 18% in 2021 to 14% last year, while Vivo’s fell from 16% to 15% and Oppo’s remained flat at 9%.
ET’s emails to the smartphone companies went unanswered at press time on Sunday.
According to IDC, Samsung and Apple cover 81% of volumes in the premium segment (over Rs 40,000), which grew by 55% last year. The segment below Rs 25,000 – where the Chinese handset brands have a strong presence – fell by 15% in 2022, according to the market watcher.
Counterpoint Research estimates that total smartphone sales will grow 5% by 2023, driven by demand for 5G handsets. The premium segment can grow 30% in volume to capture 13% of the market (from 10% now), leading to higher revenues for the industry, it said.
Analysts said this was one of the main reasons for China’s mobile phone brands to announce launches in the premium segment.
A quick analysis of the launches indicates that smartphone companies are making efforts to build stories around their products through collaborations with iconic brands or by bringing in premium components to make smartphones more attractive.
IDC India’s Navkendar Singh said companies are realizing that people are upgrading their smartphones less, so we’re doing everything we can to give them a compelling reason to do so, even if it’s at a higher price.
As customers make large purchases, physical stores see their profits increase.
Offline retailers ET spoke to said that while margins remain more or less the same, they need to sell less of it and earn more, even though footfall in stores has declined due to fewer launches.
“Profit margins in the smartphone business range from 5-15% depending on the targets given to retailers,” said Manish Khatri, partner at mobile retail chain Mahesh Telecom. “If retailers can sell more expensive high-end handsets, they’ll hit targets faster and earn more incentives.”
However, Khatri said the demand for high-end smartphones is cyclical.
Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst of technology market research firm Techarc, also said that the premium segment is not expected to grow as much in 2023 as it did last year. or two years, and users hold onto their purchases for at least two years,” he said.