Whereas international smartphone shipments are extensively anticipated to surge in 2024 following a number of years of decline, one of many world’s largest markets continued its struggles in January. In keeping with the newest preliminary knowledge put collectively by Counterpoint Analysis, the US noticed 10 p.c much less gross sales within the first month of the brand new yr in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
That is clearly… not nice, however it won’t be horrible both, with a “rebound” of kinds “probably” to be pushed by the Galaxy S24 household in February. After all, Samsung’s latest ultra-high-end handsets turned accessible in late January, however that was evidently not sufficient to maneuver the nationwide needle into an total constructive route.
The US smartphone market’s largest drawback was nevertheless the “low-end phase”, which carried out under expectations and presumably method under its outcomes from the start of 2023. Whereas no producer is known as (and shamed) for this class’s normal underperformance, Motorola, TCL, and sure, Samsung are the primary manufacturers that come to thoughts when speaking about low-cost cellular gadgets stateside, and one thing tells us all three corporations can do and have in all probability achieved higher in earlier months.
The premium and “ultra-premium” segments, in the meantime, apparently carried out “higher” however probably not by a lot, as total improve charges proceed to be described as “tepid.”
To the shock of completely nobody in the least conversant in the US market, Apple remains to be the nation’s primary smartphone vendor… by a mile, a supremacy consolidated by the iPhone 15 lineup’s regular recognition within the postpaid channel and “vital” pay as you go curiosity in “outdated” members of the iPhone 11 and 12 households.
Regardless of all that and regardless of “outperforming most manufacturers”, the Cupertino-based tech large additionally noticed its personal handset gross sales figures for the month of January fall by “low single digits” in comparison with the opening 31 days of 2023. Nonetheless, Apple is having fun with relative total stability in a market “experiencing double-digit declines”, which clearly places the corporate in an excellent (early) place to take care of final yr’s primary spot within the international cellular business. However we’re in all probability getting forward of ourselves after only one month and a (preliminary) report masking a single nation.
