According to Canalys, a total of 1.35 billion smartphones were shipped globally last year. That marks a healthy seven percent year-on-year (YoY) increase from 1.26 billion shipments in 2020. More importantly, the figure for 2021 is closer to 2019’s 1.37 billion units, suggesting that the smartphone industry has recovered from an unprecedented slowdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All major vendors benefitted from a reignited demand for smartphones in 2021. Samsung remained at the top, selling 274.5 million smartphones last year. This accounts for about 20 percent of the global market. However, it saw the lowest YoY growth in shipments among the top five vendors (seven percent). This doesn’t come as a surprise though. Chinese firms Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have been giving Samsung a tough time in the market lately. Xiaomi even managed to overthrow the Korean behemoth from the top spot briefly in 2020. While the latter has managed to fend off the competition up to some extent in 2021, it would have to be on its toes this year to retain its crown as the “smartphone king.” Needless to say, Xiaomi (28 percent), Oppo (22 percent), and Vivo (15 percent) were the three fastest-growing smartphone brands last year. They came in third, fourth, and fifth in this league table of top five vendors, selling 191.2 million, 145.1 million, 129.9 million smartphones respectively. Apple remained at second with an 11 percent YoY growth. It sold 230.1 million iPhones last year, capturing a 17 percent share in the market.
Apple was the biggest smartphone vendor in Q4 2021
As has been the trend in recent years, Apple and Samsung swapped positions when it comes to the shipment volume for the fourth quarter last year. Apple shipped 82.7 million iPhones in the year-ending quarter compared to Samsung’s 70.5 million units. However, the Korean company still has one big takeaway here. Its shipments grew 14 percent YoY during this period, much more than Apple’s one percent. Even Xiaomi managed to grow only about five percent in Q4 2021. Oppo and Vivo, meanwhile, saw their smartphone shipment volume decrease seven percent and 11 percent YoY in the last three months of the year. So Samsung had a strong end to 2021. Well, we saw that in its earnings report for last year. The company would now be hoping to build maintain the momentum in 2022 as it tries to fend off the competition from its Chinese rivals. A lot will depend on the sales of its upcoming Galaxy S22 flagship series. The new devices go official on February 9.
