China News Finance, February 25 (Reporter Wu Tao) In January, domestic mobile phones fell by 17.7% year-on-year. Originally January was the peak season for mobile phone sales, but this time the shipment plummeted, what happened?
Domestic mobile phone shipments plummeted
According to the latest data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in January 2022, the domestic market shipments of mobile phones were 33.022 million units, down 17.7% year-on-year. Among them, 26.324 million 5G mobile phones, down 3.5% year-on-year, accounting for 79.7% of mobile phone shipments in the same period.
Domestic mobile phone shipments in January. Image source: Screenshot of the official website of the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology
Some analysts pointed out that the decline in mobile phone shipments this time is unusual, because every January is close to the Spring Festival, according to previous years, it should be the peak sales season.
For example, in the same period last year, that is, in January 2021, the domestic mobile phone market shipped 40.12 million units, an increase of 92.8% year-on-year, and 40 new models were listed, an increase of 17.6% year-on-year.
In addition, this is also the first decline in domestic mobile phone shipments after three consecutive months of year-on-year growth. Many analyses have pointed out that this situation is indeed rare.
Lack of innovation may be the main cause
Some argue that the lack of innovation or the decline in mobile phone shipments is the main reason. According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in January 2022, 30 new models of mobile phones were listed in the domestic market, down 43.4% year-on-year, of which 15 were 5G mobile phones, down 53.1% year-on-year.
In addition, in January, although the flagship models Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro, IQOO9 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro, etc. were released, and the processors all used a new generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8. The outside world claims that the performance is 400% higher than that of the Snapdragon 888. However, many analysts believe that the performance of Snapdragon 8 is less than expected.
Some mobile phones claim that the performance of Snapdragon 8 is 400% better than that of Snapdragon 888. Screenshots
In addition to the CPU, many new models have no highlights, and in the publicity, they are still emphasizing the old functions such as "long endurance, large battery, and fast charging".
Xiang Ligang, an observer of the communications industry, believes that the innovation of the mobile phone industry has entered a bottleneck period, such as mobile phone pixels, after breaking through the 100 million mark, it will tend to be stable and balanced for a period of time. At present, the pixels of the flagship model of the mobile phone are generally around 50 million.
For the sharp decline in mobile phone shipments, citic securities recently released a research report pointed out that the future performance of the mobile phone market still needs to be observed.
However, it is worth noting that folding screen mobile phones have become popular after several years of market education. A number of folding screen mobile phone manufacturers show "out of stock", and there is news that Apple will launch a folding screen iPhone in 2025.
According to IDC data, it is expected that by 2025, the global shipment of folding screen mobile phones will reach 27.6 million, with an average annual growth rate of 69.9%. Other agencies predict that by 2025, the shipment of folding screen mobile phones will exceed 50 million units.
Lack of core, epidemic and other reasons are superimposed
Qi Yingnan, deputy director and senior analyst of consulting agency Counterpoint, believes that China's mobile phone market has been affected by the epidemic, and the smart phone season cycle is further extended.
Infographic. Photo by Yin Liqin
"The problem of semiconductor shortages has been continuously fermented, and in 2021, we see that because of the shortage of semiconductors, the price of many components has caused the cost of smart phones to rise, which has brought a more serious impact on low-end products, further compressing the profit margins of low-end products, which makes more manufacturers have to increase the price of new products to offset the impact of rising costs." Qi Yingnan said.
However, Qi Yingnan believes that global smartphone shipments will still maintain a positive growth in 2022, and it is expected to increase by more than 7%. (End)