Smartphone shipments leaped 24 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 340 million units, driven by healthy demand from people with aging devices and a “phenomenal” push from Chinese vendors, according to the latest study from Strategy Analytics. The growth is the highest recorded since 2015.
Globally, the top five vendors combined held 76 percent of the market, up from 71 percent the year before. Chip shortages and supply side constraints did not have a significant impact in the quarter among the top 5 brands but was and will be a concern for smaller vendors over the next few quarters, the researchers said.
China smartphone shipments soared 35 percent to 94 million units in the quarter, boosted by 5G products across multiple price tiers.
Samsung remains largest vendor
Samsung remained the largest vendor, with shipments jumping 32 percent to 77 million smartphones. The solid performance was driven by the launch of more affordable A series 4G and 5G phones, and the earlier introduced Galaxy S21 series.
Second place Apple shipments went up 44 percent to 57 million iPhones worldwide. The company captured a 17 percent volume market share, helped by continued strong momentum behind the 5G iPhone 12 series across multiple markets.
Xiaomi held third place in terms of volume, for the second quarter in a row. The company shipped 49 million smartphones, an increase of 80 percent, and lifted its market share to 15 percent from 10 percent. The vendor maintained strong momentum in both India and China, and the expansion in Europe, Latin America and Africa region also started to bear fruit.
Oppo (not including Realme and OnePlus) grabbed an 11 percent market share and remained the fourth largest smartphone vendor, with shipments rising 68 percent to 38 million units.
Vivo rounded out the top five, with sales advancing 85 percent to 37 million units.
