As we get closer to the yearly release of a smartphone the sales of its predecessor normally slow down. Not so with the iPhone 14 this year. Even with the iPhone 15 due out in October, sales of the iPhone 14 grew 3 percent YoY for the second quarter of 2023 — and that was just in Australia — according to Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company.
Overall, in Australia, smartphone sales were down 7 percent YoY even with iOS sales improving by 3 percent. The iPhone 14 in fact accounted for more than 14 percent of sales of all models sold. Not surprisingly, given this fact, Android sales were down 3 percent.
Google and Motorola had a good quarter though with strong gains of 7 and 5 percent respectively. With the next Pixel arriving in October, we expect their sales to slow down in the next quarter but with Motorola recently releasing relatively affordable flip phones with the Razr 40 and the Razr 40 Ultra we expect their sales to improve immensely. After using them my own personal thoughts are that the Razr 40 Ultra is the best flip phone currently on the market — so much so my purchase of one will be included in the next quarter’s report!
Samsung was once again the largest selling Android manufacturer for the second quarter of 2023 though with 56 percent of sales. The S23 wasn’t too far behind the iPhone either 14 though with it accounting for 9 percent of all model sales.
Remember though that this is one company’s analysis of the market and it may differ from another. Kantar reported that OPPO lost sales across all global markets (which in my opinion is due to them not releasing any new flagships globally aside from the Find N2 Flip) and a significant drop in sales in China but Canalys has reported that OPPO has defended its number four position in the global smartphone sales market.
Canalys further reported that every one of the top five manufacturers recorded sales decreases of more than 11 percent — except for OPPO with only saw a drop in sales of 8 percent. The overall market dropped 10 percent according to Canalys and 14 percent according to Kantar unsurprisingly in this post-COVID economy.
Whichever report you read, sales globally are not great and considering the state of inflation, corporate greed, interest rates and the lack of wage parity it is no surprise to see sales dropping. Hopefully, the result will be a win for consumers with prices dropping and features improving at lower price points.
With the iPhone releasing at the beginning of Q4 this year it will be interesting to see how their sales continue in this third quarter of 2023. Would you buy one this close to the release of the 15?
