Malaysia’s smartphone market fell in the opening quarter due to supply shortages and weak consumer demand, with IDC forecasting shipments for the full year to decline 5 per cent.

The research company expects continued supply constraints for low-end 4G models to make it difficult for vendors to meet demand, while falling desire will lower shipments of higher-priced models.

Shipments in Q1 dropped 28.3 per cent year-on-year to 2.3 million units. In addition to supply challenges for low-end Android LTE models, IDC attributed the drop to rising costs in the country, which lowered consumers’ budget for smartphones.

Samsung was the only vendor in the top five to gain market share, adding 8.3 percentage points to close the quarter with a 33.9 a per cent share. Its shipments fell 5.5 per cent to 784,600 units. Xiaomi’s share was mostly unchanged at 24.5 per cent with shipments falling 29.3 per cent to 563,100.

Oppo climbed one position to third with a 12.9 per cent share, despite shipping 34.7 per cent fewer units, as rival Vivo’s shipments plunged 57.4 per cent and its share fell from 19.5 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

Realme remained fifth with a 7.8 per cent share, with shipments down 20.6 per cent.