Smartphone manufacturers are forced to curb ambitious plans in their production planning for the second half of 2022: the focus will have to be on adjusting stocks in marketing channels; another powerful negative factor has been pandemic elbows in China: producers will also have to reduce output due to falling demand.
World output in the second quarter was 292 million smartphones, which is 5% less than in the same period last year, when South and South-East Asia hit the second wave of the pandemic, similar to the TrendForce analysts.
Samsung, the largest producer of smartphones in the European market, had to adjust the stock volume of finished products on several occasions because of the market situation and suspend the purchase of components. As a result, the company completed its second quarter with a cut of 16.3% in quarterly terms to 61.8 million units. In the third quarter, Samsung will continue to maintain the same priorities: production will remain at the level of the second quarter or will grow slightly.
For Apple II, the quarter has traditionally been the transition period with the lowest production performance, as the next model series is announced in September, and this year the situation has been exacerbated by locodowns in China. However, in the second quarter of 2022, the company released 48.2 million devices and ranked second in the world. The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max top duet is expected to receive new A16 processors, 6 Gbytes of LPDDR5, storage devices of 256 Gbyte, 48 megapixel cameras, new Face ID modules and new design. With the new line, the company will focus on price policy: accounting for inflation and preventing prices from influencing sales.
OPPO began to adjust production in the first quarter, so the second quarter ended with a 12.7% increase, releasing 25.7 million smartphones. Three of these brands ranked third to fifth on the world smartphone market, and the biggest negative factors during the reporting period were Chinese locodowns and Indian authorities seeking to regulate their work in the second largest market. Another potential threat was the Honor brand, which was actively increasing its share in China and threatening to approach OPPO and Vivo before the end of the year, replacing Xiaomi.
TrendForce analysts are confident that there will be no significant positive change in the Chinese economy in the third quarter, and China ' s prospective markets in India and Indonesia will continue to be influenced by inflation and other negative factors. Therefore, the volume of production of OPPO, Xiaomi and Vivo will remain at the level of the second quarter. The Chinese smartphone market has already reached a high degree of saturation, leaving local players with only hope for other countries ' markets.