Global Smartphone Market Back To Pre-COVID Level With 7 Percent Growth In 2021

The global smartphone market finally reached a pre-COVID level last year in 2021, growing seven percent to 1.35 billion units shipped, a report from market analysis firm Canalys said. The report said that this came despite the supply chain contraints persisting as we enter 2022. Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo made for the top five brands in the world, with Samsung leading the market at a 20 percent share. Before COVID-19, back in 2019, the total amount of units shipped were 1.37 billion, as compared to the 1.35 billion shipments in 2021. In 2020, the shipments fell to 1.26 billion units.

Samsung continued to lead the smartphone market, according to the Canalys report with a 20 percent market share. Samsung shipped 274.5 million units, 19 million more than the company’s 2020 shipments, showing a seven percent growth. Apple came second with a 17 percent market share with 230.1 million units shipped in 2021. This is a 22.9 million units increase from the company’s 207.2 million shipments in 2020. This marked an 11 percent growth for Apple in the global smartphone market.

After Samsung and Apple, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi came third with a 14 percent market share with 191.2 million shipments in 2021. The company was followed by Oppo and Vivo that got an 11 percent and 10 percent market share, respectively. Oppo’s 145.1 million shipments included OnePlus smartphones, while Vivo shipped 129.9 million units in 2021, the Canalys report said.

“Many vendors delivered their best performance in 2021, expanding smartphone shipments by double digits to compare with, and surpass, pre-COVID-19 levels," a Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia said in a statement.

The Canalys report also said that the global smartphone market shipped 363 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, showing a more than one percent year-on-year increase. Apple led the market in the fourth quarter of 2021 with 82.7 million unit shipped that resulted in a market share of 23 percent. Samsung came second in these terms with a 19 percent share with 70.5 million shipments in the last quarter. Xiaomi maintained third position with a 13 percent market share in the last quarter with 45.4 million shipments, while Oppo and Vivo also maintained fourth and fifth position, respectively.

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