We do not discover today that 2022 is a rather negative year for the global market, even for technology giants such as Samsung and Xiaomi. This situation is due to the uncertainty that has arisen all around the globe. If 2021 seemed to be the year of post-pandemic redemption, 2022 caught many off guards. Due to Russia and Ukraine conflict, the energy crisis and the “evergreen” semiconductor crisis, consumers are not willing to spend but to wait for a better time. And it does not help to deal with inflation and general financial instability.

According to 2021 data, Xiaomi was the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer of the whole year. But the Chinese company was affected by the lockdowns and the consequent supply chain crisis, to the point of starting to produce more and more smartphones outside of China. Despite the best efforts, 2022 is not going well and is turning out to be one of the worst years ever for the telephone market.

Xiaomi stated that Q2 2022 ended with a 20% decline in revenues, dropping from nearly $13 billion in Q2 2021 to about $10.3 billion.

The situation is also not favourable for Samsung. Sources close to the company said they are reducing their annual smartphone production. According to a source, Samsung planned 334 million smartphones initially. Among those 334 million, 284 million were made by Samsung and 50 million by the ODM partner producers. It has reduced to 260 million.

2020 ended with 255 million smartphones for Samsung (rising to 270 million in 2021). All this would relate to the rumoured story in recent weeks, according to which tens of millions of unsold Samsung devices are in warehouses.