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While we’ve seen a ton of rather impressive smartphones come out in the past couple of years, it’s no secret that a lot of buyers are choosing to keep their phones for longer periods, instead of upgrading yearly. This is according to data from Counterpoint Research, which shows an interesting trend with smartphone buying habits among consumers.
Counterpoint’s report indicates that US smartphone shipments declined YoY (year-over-year) for the fourth straight quarter during Q3 2023, due to overall weak consumer demand. Despite this, Motorola and Nokia managed to increase their shipments by 31% and 17% respectively, in comparison to the same period last year. Counterpoint’s Senior Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne notes:
“Despite the 19% decline in overall smartphone shipments, there were some brands that saw growth. Motorola and Nokia HMD were able to buck the market trend and achieve growth with refreshed portfolios and stronger presence in prepaid and national retail channels. Samsung and TCL struggled in the low end of the market with devices approaching their end of life (EOL).”
Meanwhile, brands such as Samsung, TCL and Google recorded the steepest YoY declines during this period. Data from several carriers shows that there were weaker upgrade rates due to buyers keeping their existing smartphone for longer. Even Apple’s iPhone shipments saw a decline with 11% YoY, due to the iPhone 15’s later launch date (compared to the iPhone 14).
Once mainstays at the top of the mobile phone industry, both Nokia and Motorola saw challenging times especially during the massive market transition from feature phones to smartphones, the latter of which served as the core strength of both companies for decades.
Source: Counterpoint Research
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