Global Smartphone Shipments to Decline 3.5% in 2022, Apple to Be Least Impacted
Global smartphone shipments are expected to decline 3.5 percent to 1.31 billion units in 2022, according to IDC's latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker forecast. Because of increasing challenges with supply and demand, IDC is significantly reducing its forecast for 2022, which previously predicted 1.6 percent growth.
IDC believes Apple will be the "least impacted vendor" because of its control over its supply chain and because iPhone customers are in the higher-priced segment and are not as impacted by macroeconomic issues like inflation.
Weakening demand, inflation, supply chain constraints, and geo-political tensions are impacting all smartphone vendors, resulting in cutbacks. Even major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple have cut orders. IDC says that it expects the challenges to ease by the end of the year, barring any new setbacks. The 2023 market is expected to recover with 5 percent growth.
Semiconductor supply issues are also expected to ease in the second half of 2022.
"The ongoing semiconductor supply issues will ease up in the second half of 2022. On the SoC side, 4G SoC supply has been tight, but the market continues to shift towards 5G SoCs," said Phil Solis, research director in IDC's Enabling Technologies and Semiconductors team. "The bigger problem has been the tight supply of components such as PMICs, display drivers, and discrete Wi-Fi chips. Capacity is being increased for these semiconductors that are made in higher process nodes and newer versions of Wi-Fi chips are being made with newer process nodes. At the same time, demand is dropping. Combined, these supply and demand changes will put the market more in equilibrium."
Apple in the second fiscal quarter of 2022 had difficulty meeting demand for the current iPhone, iPad, and Mac models because of supply constraints, and the company said in April that it expects those issues to continue into the third fiscal quarter. At the current time, the Mac and iPad appear much more affected by supply chain issues than the iPhone.
Recent rumors have suggested that the iPhone 14 Max is several weeks behind schedule compared to the other iPhone 14 models due to supply chain issues, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple has the situation under control and suppliers are going to be able to work overtime to watch up. Whether or not these supply issues result in delays or fewer iPhones available for purchase in September remains to be seen.
Popular Stories
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why.
In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro.
The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence.
The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles.
iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look.
Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March.
As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta.
Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device.
The revised beta addresses an...
