Canalys: Q2 smartphone sales in North America fell 22% YoY, with Apple down 20% and Samsung down 27%; Google's sales rose 59% YoY and market share doubled to 4%
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
North American smartphone demand had already turned down: a separate tracker reported a 24% year-over-year Q2 US shipment decline and a third straight quarterly contraction. That reverses the modest regional growth reported in early 2022, when Apple expanded its lead and Google grew from a small base as North American shipments increased in Q1 2022.
Canalys' figures add a vendor-level split to that downturn: the two largest suppliers declined sharply, while Google expanded enough to double its still-small share.
First-order effects
- Apple and Samsung absorb most of the immediate volume loss in a North American market down 22% year over year, pressuring their handset sell-through relative to the prior year.
- Google gains share as its sales rise 59% year over year, reaching 4% of the market despite the broader contraction.
Second-order effects
- A smaller overall market makes share gains more consequential: Apple and Samsung must defend upgrade demand and channel presence while Google has more incentive to sustain its momentum.
- The divergence reinforces that market-share changes can occur even in a declining category; later coverage still showed a sixth consecutive quarter of US shipment declines, with Samsung gaining share while Apple held steady.
Third-order effects
- If replacement demand remains weak, North American competition is likely to center less on expanding unit volumes and more on retaining installed users and taking share from rivals.
- Google's growth indicates that smaller vendors can improve their position during a downturn, but a 4% share means the market remains dominated by Apple and Samsung rather than structurally reshaped.
The trend: North American smartphones are moving into a prolonged replacement-driven slowdown in which vendor performance increasingly depends on share capture rather than category growth.