Resellers may be sitting on costly pile of regret after US smartphone shopping spree

Profiteering resellers stateside filled up on smartphone inventory in calendar Q1 before the scheduled imposition of US tariffs, which have rocked global stock prices and US Treasury bonds since April 2.

Preliminary data released by IDC today shows the volume of phones sold into the channel globally between the start of January and the end of March grew 1.5 percent year-on-year to 304.9 million units.

The US smartphone sector itself bounced by 5 percent, the data indicates.

"Faced with heightened geopolitical uncertainty and the looming threat of substantial US tariff hikes on goods imported from China, vendors strategically accelerated production schedules and pulled forward significant shipment volumes, particularly into the critical US market, during Q1 2025," said Francisco Jeronimo, veep of client devices at IDC.

"This supply-side surge, aimed at mitigating potential cost increases and disruptions, effectively inflated Q1 shipment figures beyond levels anticipated based on underlying consumer ...