DIGITIMES Research expects global smartphone shipments to grow more than 10% sequentially and 2% on year in the fourth quarter, reaching over 300 million units, with the sequential increase driven primarily by Apple's iPhone shipments, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest figures from its global smartphone industry report.
While inflation still looms over most countries, demand for smartphones has started recovering in emerging markets, such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, in the latter half of the third quarter of 2023. Global smartphone shipments for the third quarter of 2023 totaled nearly 275 million units, narrowing the annual decline to 0.6%.
Compared with the forecast in August, DIGITIMES Research has adjusted the global smartphone shipments for 2023 to 1.1043 billion units, an upward revision of 23.2 million units.
In the Chinese smartphone market, compared to the forecast in August, third-quarter shipments have slightly increased to 61.3 million units, with a year-on-year growth rate of 5%. Outside of China, due to the recovery in demand from emerging countries, shipments have been revised upward to 213.5 million units, narrowing the annual decline to 2.1%.
Regarding the global 5G smartphone shipments, DIGITIMES Research has raised its projection for 2023 to 571.5 million units compared to the 564.1 million forecast in August, representing a 2.9% decline from 2022.
