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2018 Was the 'Worst Year Ever' For Smartphone Shipments (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

2018 was the worst year ever for smartphone shipments, according to the latest figures from research firm IDC. It means Apple isn't the only company fighting to keep people interested in buying new phones every year. From a report: IDC said 1.4 billion smartphones were sold in 2018, marking a 4.1 percent decline for the year in an industry that's accustomed to rapid growth. In 2014, as well, 1.4 billion phones were shipped, which means the industry seems to have regressed about 5 years. Shipments shrank 4.9 percent for the fourth quarter of 2018, IDC said. Apple said earlier this week that iPhone revenues were 15 percent lower than last year. CEO Tim Cook said the strengthened dollar, an economic slowdown in China, lower subsidies on phones and its battery replacement program contributed to the drop in sales. Samsung phone shipments declined 5.5 percent and Apple's slipped 11.5 percent during the quarter, IDC said. But Huawei, which was able to capitalize on China, saw a 33.6 percent bump in shipments. Chinese vendors Oppo and Xiaomi also increased shipments, IDC said.

13 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Well their batteries keep dying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't want to buy a new phone because they're not worth the cost. They keep breaking and their batteries die. Why would I keep spending money on these hyped up pieces of garbage that surveill me?

    1. Re:Well their batteries keep dying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't want to buy a new phone because they're not worth the cost. My two-year old, second hand phone works fine for my use case and is still receiving updates. YMMV

    2. Re:Well their batteries keep dying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. The old phone is still working, and the new ones aren't much better. A few more megapixels or an extra camera does not justify a new phone.

      And they are all like. They just cannot innovate. Same form factor, nearly same hw. Nobody has anything extra the others doesn't have. E-paper anyone? DAB-radio? Slide-out keyboard? Nope, they are all the same - and the same as the last 4 years.

      Perhaps those folding screens will be interesting, replacing phone & tablet with a single device. Unless they break easily. But they are not around yet, so . . .

    3. Re: Well their batteries keep dying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They are actually getting worse! Notches? No headphone jack? No SD card? Glued batteries?
      They can shove those 'flagship' pieces of junk back where they pulled them out from!

  2. 1754 was not very good either ... by ElRabbit · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... so worst ever is probably exaggerated here

    1. Re: 1754 was not very good either ... by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would there be a resurgence in sales? What most people have now is good enough, there's no need to upgrade any more. That doesn't mean it's dying, merely that the upgrade cycle has been broken.

    2. Re:1754 was not very good either ... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Funny

      To be fair the year-on-year decrease in sales from 1753 was 0%, which is lower than 4.1%.

      1999 was the best year, when smartphone sales increased from 0% to NaN%.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re: 1754 was not very good either ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, edit a document on a phone. Show me. And I don't mean cut&paste - write a few paragraphs of text.

      A home need only one 'computer', not a computer per person. Because light games & browsing is now done on phones & tablets. That computer is still needed whenever writing more than a tweet or two is called for. Therefore, computer sales are down - but the computer is in no way 'dead'. Stuppid salesmen tend to call anything 'dead' that isn't growing though - according to such people, 'food' is dead. Except it isn't - food sell as much as ever, and employ lots of people. But of course no increase.

  3. Why is this bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Smartphone tech has matured, so we dont need to upgrade every year or two year. This is a good thing. Why is every shit news site pumping out story after story on this. Is it a really a bad thing when we can consume less and save more?

  4. No killer features. by johnsie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most people use their phones for messaging, calling people and scrolling through websites or looking up information. That can be done well on even the cheapest modern phones. I think a lot of people are addicted to their phones, but there's not this need to have the latest and greatest anymore as long as the apps run ok.

  5. Re: Why upgrade? by c6gunner · · Score: 5, Informative

    From what I've seen amongst friends and acquaintances, there are only three reasons most people upgrade these days:

    1. The battery life has decreased to the point that it's unusable, and they don't seem to understand that you can change the battery.
    2. The phone stops working and is out of warranty.
    3. They're on a "plan" which amortizes the cost of the phone over several years, it's time for a renewal, and the provider has offered them a "deal" which they think is good.

    Personally I just upgrade on a 2-3 year cycle and buy second hand phones which are about a year old. By that point they cost half or less of the original price, and they've been on the market long enough for me to evaluate the relative performance and reliability based on consumer reviews. Plus I can check and make sure they have an active development community on XDA and a way to unlock the bootloader.

  6. Re: Why upgrade? by mjwx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From what I've seen amongst friends and acquaintances, there are only three reasons most people upgrade these days:

    1. The battery life has decreased to the point that it's unusable, and they don't seem to understand that you can change the battery.
    2. The phone stops working and is out of warranty.
    3. They're on a "plan" which amortizes the cost of the phone over several years, it's time for a renewal, and the provider has offered them a "deal" which they think is good.

    I can boil that one down in to 1 reason.

    1. The phone they have is good enough.

    Smartphones are now mature. There's no huge advantage to buying a new model because it will only have minor differences. There aren't any more "killer" features to add, most improvements will not be noticed by the user, making fonts slighlty clearer, improving memory management, so on and so forth. There just isn't the impetus to upgrade any more.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  7. Re:Scamsung by jdschulteis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It sure seems like the wonders of modern polymers and composites should allow creation of a phone that can charge wirelessly (unlike metal), survive modest falls (unlike glass), and still provide the "luxury" feel that will convince some people to pay $1000 for a $300 item.