Foldable smartphone shipments rose 571% globally to 2.2 million handsets in Q1, the third best quarter on record, though units were down 47% sequentially from the record-high 4.2 million units in Q4, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Tuesday. Samsung continued to dominate the category, but its share fell to 74%, while Huawei’s share jumped to 20%, said DSCC. No other brand had more than a 2% share, it said. Though 2022 will be a challenging year for most display applications, foldable smartphones will see strong growth, said DSCC CEO Ross Young: “We expect a 107% increase in foldable smartphone shipments to over 16M units.”

Qualcomm announced its latest Android platforms for premium- and high-tier smartphones Friday. The chipsets are due to be adopted by global OEMs for phones launching this quarter, 2023 for higher end models, the company said. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, to be used in premium smartphones from Asus Rog, Lenovo, Motorola, Oppo, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE, is said to have 10% faster speeds to deliver “amped-up gameplay” with HDR, and a 30% power reduction enables 60 extra minutes of play time. Video capture features include 8K HDR and HDR10+. Advanced AI enables Leica Leitz bokeh effects. Snapdragon Sound has support for CD lossless audio quality and low latency for “lag-free gaming.” The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 mobile platform, to be adopted by brands including Honor, Oppo and Xiaomi, will double the frame rate for mobile gaming at the same power consumption of the previous platform, Qualcomm said. Phone features include 200-megapixel photo capture and staggered 4K HDR video recording. A Deep Learning Face Detect feature is said to allow more accurate auto focus “even while wearing a mask.”

North American smartphone shipments reached 39 million units in Q1 “buoyed by Apple’s strong growth,” said Canalys Thursday. The iPhone 13’s “strong performance” drove a 19% increase to 19.9 million shipments, giving Apple 51% market share in the quarter, said analyst Brian Lynch. With global demand “more uncertain,” Apple shifted more devices back into North America after prioritizing other regions in Q4, allowing it to fulfill more demand and deliver on backorders from the previous quarter, Lynch said. The launch of the latest iPhone SE gave the region's “fiercely loyal iOS users" an affordable option. Though the SE isn' mmWave-enabled, carriers’ increasing investments in C-band and sub-6GHz spectrums “will open the door for the iPhone SE’s market growth in the coming quarters,” Lynch said. High inflation is putting pressure on North American carriers “as rate increases will be necessary,” said Lynch. “Heavy discounting and high trade-in values are being used to lure in and retain customers for the region’s biggest telcos, easing pressure on the high-end smartphone market,” Lynch said. Supply will remain a bottleneck for leading vendors in Q2, but North America will remain a priority and is likely to maintain healthy supply levels, he said. “The North American market is well placed to avoid any significant volatility in shipments despite the uncertain outlook of its economy.” Samsung was up 1% to 10.5 million shipments in Q1, for 27% share on sales of new S and A series devices with a range of price points, he said. Lenovo’s Motorola smartphones came in third with 10% share on 2.6 million shipments after “taking over LG’s former carrier slots and supply capacity.” TCL was fourth with 4% share on 1.7 million shipments; Google had 3% share on 200,000 shipments.

Global smartphone production volume was “relatively weak” in Q1, declining 12.8% year on year to 310 million handsets due to ongoing “inventory adjustments” in distribution channels and cyclical off-season patterns, reported TrendForce Wednesday. The resurgence of COVID-19 in China exacerbated the production decline, and war in Ukraine is contributing to rising inflation, said the research firm, predicting lower disposable income will lead to “prolonged replacement cycles” and tighter consumer budgets in the second half. Due to lockdowns in China, its share of the smartphone market has dropped from 24.2% last year to 21.1%, with a 2022 shipment forecast dropping 12.9% to 283 million units. The 2022 U.S. share of smartphones is projected at 11%, behind India’s 13.1% share.

CTIA and member companies updated the FCC Wireline Bureau on the latest on SIM swap and port-out fraud, the topic of a rulemaking last year (see 2112150018). “CTIA and its members take consumer fraud seriously and continue to work to stay ahead of bad actors with innovative security approaches,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-341: “While over 99% of SIM swap and port-out requests are legitimate, CTIA’s members remain committed to combatting and deterring fraud attempts that do occur.” AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and UScellular participated in the call.

Global Q1 smartphone shipments declined 8.9% year over year, according to preliminary IDC data reported Thursday. It was the third straight quarter of decline for the smartphone market, as shipments fell to 314.1 million handsets, about 3.5% fewer than IDC projected in February. Though some decline was expected in Q1, “due to the ongoing supply and logistical challenges and a difficult year-over-year comparison, things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse," said IDC. The rising costs of components and freight, plus the COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai, “are exacerbating an already difficult situation,” it said. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine continuing on an “unknown trajectory,” most smartphone OEMS “are adopting a more conservative growth strategy for 2022," it said. Samsung led the vendor race in Q1 with the 23.4% share, "its largest share in any given quarter since the first quarter of 2018," said IDC. Apple was second with 18.0% share, it said, with Xiaomi third at 12.7%.

The iPhone 13 accounted for 38% of Apple's Q1 phone sales, the largest share for a single Apple model since the iPhone 11 grabbed 37% in March 2020, but iPhone mini models “continue to attract few buyers,” reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Thursday. The downsized 13 and 12 series iPhone minis had 3% sales each in the quarter. All four iPhone 13 models combined for 71% of Apple’s U.S. smartphone sales in the March quarter vs. the comparable 12 series phones a year ago with 61%, said the research firm. Buyers are keeping their previous phone for less time, reversing a long-time trend, CIRP said. In March, a fifth of buyers said they had their previous phone for three years or longer vs. about a third who said so the prior year. In the March quarter, 47% of buyers had their previous phone for two years or less vs. 35% in the year-ago quarter. “Since the market shifted to unsubsidized phone sales on installment contracts, the age of old phones climbed as owners enjoyed using their paid-for phones,” but that trend reversed, “perhaps as options for trading-in high value used phones continued to improve,” said analyst Mike Levin. Older models are selling well, Levin said: The iPhone 11, introduced over two years ago, and iPhone XR, from over three years ago, combined with the iPhone SE for 15% of sales in March.

Sluggish seasonal demand and “unfavorable economic conditions” sent smartphone shipments down 11% in Q1, Canalys reported Tuesday. Samsung grew its share by 5 points from Q4 to 24% on a revamped portfolio, including the flagship Galaxy S22 series. Apple, in second with 18% share, had a “solid” Q1 on growing demand for the iPhone 13 lineup, it said. Vendors face “major uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine war, China’s rolling lockdowns and the threat of inflation,” said analyst Nicole Peng. Vendors have to be able to "respond quickly to emerging opportunities and risks while staying focused on their long-term strategic plans,” she said. Component shortages “might improve sooner than expected,” which would relieve cost pressures, she said. The iPhone SE, which launched in March, is an important mid-range volume driver for Apple, bringing 5G connectivity, an upgraded chipset and better battery performance, said analyst Sanyam Chaurasia. Samsung ramped production of its A series to compete in the mid-to-low segment, while Chinese vendors are still experiencing supply constraints at the low end, with global expansion held back by a slowdown in their home market, he said.

February sales of mobile phones through the national retail channel increased 4% in units and 4% in dollars from a year earlier, boosted by new flagship device releases, reported NPD Wednesday. The sales growth was especially robust in the third week of February, when dollars jumped 142% and units 33% from the second week of the month, it said. During that same time period mobile phone accessories sales increased 16% in dollars and 13% in units, after declines all through January, it said. The growth in the third week of February came after consumers "took advantage of promotions and financing programs that were extended to 36 months," said NPD analyst Brad Akyuz. "Additionally, accessory credit promotions drove sales of corresponding cases and more to accompany these new devices.”

Revenue in the smartphone battery cells market grew more than 10% globally year over year, reaching $8.7 billion in 2021, reported Strategy Analytics Tuesday. The top three vendors, Amperex, LG Energy Solutions and Samsung SDI, captured nearly 82% revenue share combined, it said. “Smartphones will see more adoption of high-capacity battery cells driven by specification increases,” said SA. “We expect the challenges due to surging raw material costs will continue to impact the battery supply chain of vendors.”