Q2 foldable smartphone panel shipments rose 20% quarter on quarter and 141% year over year to 3.1 million, and foldable phone shipments fell 26% quarter on quarter but jumped 94% year over year to 1.6 million handsets, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. No major smartphones were introduced in the quarter, but panel shipments were “significant” for a number of major launches in Q3, and that’s what accounted for the “differential in growth,” said DSCC. Samsung remained the top foldables brand, with a 50% share of phone shipments and a 66% share on a panel procurement basis, it said. Huawei held second place with a 37% share of phone shipments, followed by Oppo at No. 3 with 8%, it said. In Q2, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 was the best-selling model with a 34% share, with Korea its best-selling region. It was followed by the Huawei P50 Pocket with a 32% share and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 with 14%. Samsung Display remained the top panel supplier with a 73% share followed by BOE at 18% and Visionox at 8%.

Consumers are continuing to hold on to their smartphones longer, with the average age of handsets turned in through trade-in and upgrade programs in Q2 crossing the 3.5-years mark for the first time, said Assurant, a supplier of extended service contracts. “Global demand for pre-owned devices in the secondary market continues to grow, reflected by the rise in trade-in value,” said Assurant. The average trade-in value for all devices increased to $137 in Q2 from $123 in Q1, it said. Though consumers are holding onto their devices for longer, “we are seeing increasingly more consumers trading in their devices,” it said.

Price will have a major impact on market performance of the iPhone 14, due to be unveiled Wednesday during Apple’s 1 p.m. EDT event, Canalys emailed Tuesday. Higher component, materials and logistics costs are expected to result in more expensive iPhones, but “Apple has to be mindful of growing inflationary pressures on its consumers,” said analyst Le Xuan Chiew, saying Apple’s collaboration with channel partners “will be critical to improve affordability" for customers. At the same time, Chiew noted demand for premium smartphones is up, “with Apple continuously increasing its dominance.” Despite economic headwinds and overall shrinking demand for smartphones, “demand for premium smartphones is expected to remain strong," Chiew said. By model in first half 2022, the iPhone 13 had 42% share of the Apple global market; the 13 Pro Max and 13 Pro had 15% share each, Canalys said. “Apple’s effective countermeasures against macro-economic uncertainties drove iPhone shipments in H1 2022,” Chiew said, saying iPhone 13 shipments exceeded expectations. Chiew credited Apple’s decision to diversify production out of China into India with helping it "weather supply chain issues,” while investments in high-growth regions including Asia-Pacific and the Middle East helped the company navigate weakening global demand.

Camera/video quality is the No. 3 purchase driver for smartphones, behind performance and battery life, NPD emailed Tuesday. Some 36% of respondents in surveys taken January-July said camera/imaging capabilities were a purchase motivator. The number jumped to 47% among former iPhone owners who switched to an Android flagship device above $800, it said. “Smartphone manufacturers have long used camera quality and computational imaging features as a point of differentiation and these features are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” noted analyst Brad Akyuz. “An improvement in camera quality/imaging capabilities could prove effective in eliminating a potential churn to the Android ecosystem among the iPhone user base.”

Record inflation, geopolitical tensions and other macroeconomic challenges that have “significantly dampened” consumer demand will spur a 6.5% decline in 2022 smartphone shipments to 1.27 billion handsets, reported IDC Wednesday. IDC’s latest forecast is a 3-point reduction from previous projections, but IDC expects the setback to be short term, it said. Its outlook is for the market to rebound in 2023 with 5.2% growth year over year and, longer term, to sustain a five-year compound annual growth rate of 1.4%. "The supply constraints pulling down on the market since last year have eased and the industry has shifted to a demand-constrained market,” said IDC. High inventory in channels and low demand with no signs of immediate recovery “has OEMs panicking and cutting their orders drastically for 2022,” it said. The events of the past 12 months “shaved” 150 million handsets off the market for 2022 from its forecast in 2021's Q2, said IDC. Despite the unit decline, average selling prices grew 10% year over year in Q2 and are forecast to grow 6.3% for the full year, it said. The premium segment, defined as smartphones listing for $800 or more, “has proved resilient to the economic turmoil and has grown four percentage points in share to 16% of the total smartphone market and will continue to grow,” it said.

North American smartphone shipments fell 6.4% year on year to 35.4 million in Q2 due to economic challenges, inflation and poor seasonal demand, said Canalys Monday. “Solid” iPhone 13 demand drove a 3% rise in Apple shipments, along with a full quarter of entry-level third-generation iPhone SE performance. Samsung shipments rose 4% on strength of the flagship S series and low-end A-series devices, Canalys said. Apple led the quarter with 52% market share, rising 4 points from Q2 2021, followed by Samsung with 26% share, Motorola (9%), TCL (1.8%) and Google (0.8%), said the report. Most top vendors matched their shipments from Q2 2021; the volume decrease was caused by the “partially unfilled” gap created when LG left the smartphone market, it said. Vendors are responding quickly to falling demand in the North American market, focused on cutting the risk of oversupply as they prepare launches in the second half, said analyst Runar Bjorhovde. Consumer interest in low-end and high-end devices is sustaining the smartphone market, said analyst Brian Lynch. Performance of the latest iPhone SE, Galaxy A53 and Galaxy A33 is “poorer than initially expected,” Lynch said. Buyers who would typically consider devices costing in the $250-$600 range are looking for cheaper options “as they continue to feel the financial pressure of inflation on everyday expenses,” said Lynch. At the low-end, demand remains solid and competition between vendors is “fierce,” he said, giving Motorola’s refreshed G Power, Samsung’s A13 models and TCL’s new launches with Tracfone, Verizon and T-Mobile as “budget-friendly” phones increasingly in demand.

The FCC reported Thursday that of 153 handset models studied, all but 14 were hearing-aid compatible. The models were offered in the U.S. during a one-year period ending June 30. Ten of the 14 models were offered by Motorola Mobility. The FCC lists 14 manufacturers.

CTIA reported to the FCC that the number of handsets in use in the U.S. that can use the latest generation of wireless emergency alert technology (WEA 3.0) continues to grow. CTIA, citing IDC data, now estimates the WEA 3.0 penetration rate is about 60% of active smartphones, an increase from 34% last year, said a filing posted Friday in docket 15-91. “Given the reported handset lifetime of 35 months … we conclude that such handsets amount to a majority of active smartphones in use in 2022,” CTIA said: “CTIA and its member companies appreciate the Commission’s dedication to enhancing the WEA system and are very pleased with the progress that the wireless industry and FEMA have made on delivering new WEA features to consumers.”

Q2 smartphone shipments declined 8.7% year over year to 286 million handsets, about 3.5% lower than previously forecast, reported IDC Thursday. "What started as a supply-constrained industry earlier this year has turned into a demand-constrained market," said IDC. "While supply improved as capacity and production was ramped up, roaring inflation and economic uncertainty has seriously dampened consumer spending and increased inventory across all regions.” Smartphone OEMs have cut back orders for the rest of the year, with Chinese vendors “making the biggest cuts as their largest market continues to struggle,” it said. Though IDC expects demand to start to recover toward year-end, “the outlook for the 2022 smartphone market will definitely be revised down a few points,” it said. “We continue to believe that any reduction today is not demand that is lost, but simply pushed forward." Qualcomm expects global handset shipments in calendar 2022 to decline by “a mid-single-digit percentage” year over year, said the chipmaker Wednesday (see 2207280003).

NXP Semiconductors is “not immune” to “the clearly weakening macro environment,” said CEO Kurt Sievers on a Q2 earnings call Tuesday. “When we look at demand signals, we have a high level of confidence in the intermediate term outlook,” especially in the automotive and industrial markets that account for the majority of NXP’s total revenue, he said. “While there is well-documented weakness in the low-end Android handset markets, it is important to note that our mobile business is more biased towards the premium-tier members, and in aggregate, our mobile business accounts for only about 12% of our total revenue.” NXP is "not neglecting the cross currents in the macro, which have also started to be visible in our orders, especially in the mobile market," said the CEO. "Mobile is for us relatively small, so it doesn't really impact the whole company very much. But the principle we are applying is to be hyper-disciplined and hyper-paranoid to not grow any inventory down the chain."