Electronics

With rising inflation and the rising cost of daily necessities such as gasoline and food, people are changing their phones less frequently. Various companies are reducing the shipments of mobile phones and the production of their components, and planning for the difficulties they may face in the future. China's international mobile phone trade market may become the key.

Xiaomi, the world's third-largest smartphone maker after Apple and Samsung Electronics Co., said recently that its smartphone shipments fell 26 percent in the April-June period compared with the same period last year. Business revenue from smartphones fell by 28%, equivalent to $6.2 billion, and China's international mobile phone trade market may become the key.

Xiaomi believes that the main reasons include shrinking consumer demand in China, the lockdown management implemented in the quarter due to the epidemic, and the rise in global food and fuel prices.

In the same quarter, global smartphone shipments fell nearly 9 percent from a year earlier to 286 million units, according to research firm International Data Corp. IDC said that the weakest market performance is China, followed by the United States and the rest of the world. China's international mobile phone trade market may become the key.

IDC analyst Nabila Popal said: "The industry was in a tight supply situation at the beginning of the year, and now it has become a tight demand market."

This slowdown is not the performance of all mobile phone international trade markets. Sales of smartphones above $900, a segment that includes Samsung's foldable smartphones and Apple's new iPhones, rose more than 20 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, according to Counterpoint Research. Counterpoint said that in the first half of this year, only about one-tenth of the world's smartphones belonged to the high-end category, but they accounted for 70% of the industry's profits. China's international mobile phone trade market may become the key.