The appetite for smartphones among Filipinos has somehow waned for four consecutive quarters including second quarter of 2022 due to high cost of living and rising prices of essential commodities.
Because of the high cost of living, rising inflation and high unemployment caused by the pandemic, the appetite of Filipinos for smartphones have waned for four consecutive quarters, until the second quarter this year.
Data from the International Data Corp., a market intelligence company, showed that the Philippine smartphone market declined and shipments fell by 3.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
“[But] it grew 9.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), shipping 4.3 million units in the second quarter,” IDC Philippines said.
IDC Philippines Market Analyst Angela Jenny V. Medez told Business World: “The number of smartphone shipments below $200 improved significantly QoQ, as players such as Transsion and Cherry Mobile launched new models in this segment, but remained low on an annual basis, due to low demand and supply.”
“The number of shipments for models in the higher price categories also slowed down as consumer spending declined due to economic headwinds,” she added.
Consumer spending on smartphones is expected to continue to be under pressure from the rising cost of living and higher prices of essential goods.
“IDC expects 2022 will end with marginal growth of 2 percent, or flat compared to 2019,” Medez said.
The top five smartphone brands in the Philippines in the second quarter in terms of market share were realme (21.8 percent), Transsion (20.5 percent), Xiaomi (14.6 percent), Samsung (11.8 percent), and vivo (10.7 percent).
“With telecommunications company PLDT recently announcing plans to shut down their 3G network by 2023, we may see a faster migration from feature phones or older smartphones to newer models that support 4G or 5G,” Medez said.
“Note that the number of 3G cellular subscribers in the Philippines are quite low at less than 5 percent of total subscribers,” she added.
Tags: #IDC, #smartphones, #lowerdemand