Apple Continues to Thrive Despite Decline in Smartphone Market Decline Due to Russian Invasion

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 24 May 2022, 01:05 pm

The effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw European smartphone shipments decline by 10% year-on-year in the first three months of 2022.

European Smartphone Shipments Affected by Russian Invasion

According to 9to5Mac, the global chip shortage also played a role in the decline, but the latest market intelligence data said that the war between Russia and Ukraine was a bigger factor in the scale of the decline.

Canalys reports that quarterly smartphone shipments in Europe fell to 41.7 million units.

Runar Bjørhovde, a Canalys Research analyst, said that most of the decline in Europe was because of the Russian and Ukraine conflict.

These shipments of smartphones in Russia and Ukraine fell 31% and 51%, respectively, compared with Q1 2021. The shipments in the rest of Europe only declined 3.5% year on year, showing that demand remains intact.

Also Read: Russia-Ukraine Invasion Map Uses Twitter Post Updates! Here's How CIR's Tech Works and How To Use It

However, the ongoing war has driven inflation to a record level, and consumer confidence is also falling.

The real test for the smartphone market will come in the next six months of 2022 when the economic impact of the war truly starts to be felt.

Apple Continues to Thrive

Apple was second-place behind South Korean tech company Samsung, but it is ahead of Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, according to Telecoms.

A very strong iPhone 13 demand saw the Cupertino company increase shipments slightly, from 8.8 million in Q1 2021 to 8.9 million in the same quarter in 2022.

Apple's European market share increased from 19% to 21%, mostly at the expense of one of its rivals, Xiaomi.

Impact of Inflation and the Great Resignation

Looking ahead, there are a lot of concerns about the impact of inflation on demand for expensive consumer electronic products such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

The sanctions on Russia impact everything from energy prices to product distribution. Ukraine is also a major food exporter, so the food prices are getting more expensive as supply falls.

This has seen inflation soar, while the great resignation is creating more inflationary pressure as companies are forced to increase the salaries of their employees in order to retain them and recruit staff continuously.

The term was coined by Anthony Klotz, a renowned psychologist who successfully predicted the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the workforce around the world.

Klotz said that there are three main factors behind the record rates at which people are quitting their jobs.

First was the unleashing of pent-up demand for change after the initial fear-driven stagnation.

Second, the desire for continued remote working flexibility, which a lot of companies are now ending, and third, people reevaluating their priorities in life and with work seen as less important by many.

This is seeing some people downscale their careers to either take some time off or accept a lower salary for a less stressful and demanding job, which will reduce discretionary spending power for things like computers, tablets, and smartphones.

As Klotz told The Financial Times in an interview, what he kept hearing was before the COVID-19 pandemic, people arranged their whole life around work, but coming out of the pandemic, the people realized that need work to work around their lives.

Social media companies were also affected by the Russia and Ukraine war. Twitter has halted the ads on the platform in the wake of the war.