Apple iPhone shipments declined almost 15% year-over-year in 2022

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley details how smartphone shipments are at their lowest level since 2013, with Apple iPhone shipments down nearly 15% YOY.

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DAN HOWLEY: Well, my pick for the triple play is Apple. They will be reporting their Q1 earnings after the bell next Thursday. But we're already getting some potentially rough news from the tech giant. According to IDC, global smartphone shipments fell off a cliff in Q4, dropping 18.3% year over year. That really hurts. Apple moved an estimated 72.3 million iPhones in the quarter. They saw shipments decline a whopping 14.9% year over year. Now this is IDC's estimates, not Apple's.

They-- but Apple did say that they face trouble in November and December as lockdowns and worker protests at that Foxconn facility in China, where they build the bulk of their iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Max handsets cut into shipments. So the fear for Apple watchers is that if there's a decline, it could be an exceptionally poor quarter for the tech giant. You've got to think, this is a company that lives and dies by the iPhone. They had those shipment problems at that Foxconn facility.

The Q4 quarter, or the Q1 quarter, which we had Q4, and now we're going into Q1, this is usually like a lighter time for them. So we'll see what the holiday time kind of had for them. But I think--

DAVE BRIGGS: 'Cause they had real supply issues getting the 14 out around the holidays, right? And that's what's really going to weigh on this report next Thursday.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, you know, I got to imagine it's not going to be great. Mac sales, they already said that Mac sales are going to be terrible. So I mean, not terrible, but less good than they were in the prior year.

DAVE BRIGGS: Faith in Tim Cook, but it'll be interesting if we're softening the ground for Apple layoffs that's been the big question with all these tech layoffs, but they only ramped up headcount around 20%, where their peers were well north of 50. So, again, a lot of faith in Tim Cook.