Australia’s smartphone market sees 6.0% YoY decline in 4Q23

Australia’s smartphone market declined by 6.0% year-on-year (YoY) in 4Q23, shipping 2.1 million units, according to IDC.

The average selling price (ASP) increased by 7.1% YoY in 4Q23, reaching US$853, leading to a 0.7% market growth in value terms. The share of shipments in the US$1000+ segment reached 45%, compared to 39% in the same quarter in 2022, due to higher shipments of the new flagship phones from Apple, and Google in this segment. Sales through the telco channel held up while open channel sales dropped more significantly as consumers preferred to buy their phones with a telco contract.

Apple continued to lead the market with its iPhone 15 series accounting for a majority of its shipments although the “n-“ models remained popular among consumers too. Samsung’s share dropped slightly YoY, as it launched the Galaxy S23 FE after a gap year in the mid-range segment and Galaxy A05s in the low-end segment. Google rose to the third spot, tied with OPPO, continuing the momentum with its Pixel 8 series. Lenovo (Motorola) had an impressive growth doubling its share YoY to 3% with its mid-range G series models, resulting in a tie with HMD (Nokia) for the fourth spot.

Kiranjeet Kaur, Associate Research Director for Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific said, “The Australian smartphone market is expected to remain flat in 2024 with weaker demand in 1H24 despite the back-to-school promotions in Jan and end-of-financial-year events in June as the pressure on household budgets remains.”

IDC