According to TrendForce’s latest research, global smartphone production totaled around 289M units for 3Q22, showing a slight QoQ drop of 0.9% and a YoY drop of 11%. The smartphone market thus exhibited an extremely weak demand situation as the “iron law” of positive growth in the third quarter was broken after being in effect for years. The contraction of smartphone production during this year’s peak season was mainly attributed to smartphone brands giving priority to consumption of channel inventory for whole devices and maintaining a fairly conservative production plan for 3Q22. Moreover, they had kept lowering their production targets due to strong global economic headwinds. (GSM Arena, TrendForce, TrendForce, Android Headlines)
According to the latest Canalys estimates, the global smart personal audio market suffered its second consecutive decline in 3Q22, with shipments down 4% to 113.6M units. TWS remained the only category (including wireless earphones and wireless headphones) to show an increase, with 6% growth to 76.9M units in the quarter. Apple (including Beats) defended its leadership position with the second-generation AirPods Pro launch, which led to a 34% increase in shipments and a 31% market share. Samsung (including Harman subsidiaries) took second place, but its shipments fell 15% despite its new Galaxy Buds2 Pro launch. (Gizmo China, My Drivers, Canalys)
Apple has reportedly scaled back ambitious self-driving plans for its future electric vehicle and postponed the car’s target launch date by about a year to 2026. In a significant shift for the project, the company is now planning a less-ambitious design that will include a steering wheel and pedals and only support full autonomous capabilities on highways. The company’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014, when it first started to design a vehicle from scratch. (MacRumors, Bloomberg, Reuters, TechCrunch, LA Times, Yahoo)
