“We have never seen shipments in the holiday quarter come in lower than the previous quarter.”
Vendors shipped 300.3 million phones in the fourth quarter, down 18.3%, the worst single quarter IDC has recorded. The year came in at 1.21 billion. Xiaomi fell 26.3% and Apple still dropped 14.9% with a brand new iPhone 14 on shelves. Shipments are what vendors push into stores, so this is retailers and carriers refusing more stock.