New iPhone 13s are displayed at an Apple retailer on Jan. 27, 2022, in Corte Madera, California.
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The worldwide smartphone marketplace grew for the primary time in 4 years — however the general selection of gadgets shipped final yr remained beneath the pre-pandemic degree, in keeping with a file from marketplace analysis company Counterpart Analysis.
Annual smartphone cargo grew 4% yr on yr to at least one.39 billion handsets in 2021 even because the Covid pandemic and a world elements scarcity hampered provides.
Counterpoint information confirmed that during 2017, smartphone makers shipped 1.56 billion gadgets and that determine due to this fact declined once a year from 2018 to 2020.
Pent-up call for in puts like North The united states, Latin The united states and India contributed to the marketplace’s total enlargement final yr, in keeping with Harmeet Singh Walia, senior analyst at Counterpoint Analysis.
“Expansion in america was once pushed in large part via call for for Apple’s first 5G-enabled iPhone 12 collection seeping thru to the primary quarter of 2021,” Walia stated in a observation. That call for endured during the yr because the October-December quarter ended on a robust notice on account of vacation promotions and Black Friday gross sales, he added.
India noticed upper alternative charges for gadgets, higher availability in addition to extra horny financing choices for the mid- to high-end telephones, Singh Walia stated.
Counterpoint Analysis this week stated that smartphone gross sales in China fell 2% yr on yr for a number of causes, together with the worldwide semiconductor and element shortages that hindered the facility for smartphone makers to send their gadgets.
“The marketplace restoration can have been even higher if no longer for the element shortages that impacted a lot of the second one part of 2021. The main manufacturers navigated the element shortages relatively higher and therefore controlled to develop via gaining proportion from long-tail manufacturers,” Singh Walia stated.
How did the highest smartphone makers do?
Samsung held directly to the pole place as the sector’s greatest smartphone maker via cargo quantity regardless of its Vietnam factories being underneath a Covid lockdown for a while.
The South Korean corporate shipped about 271 million gadgets in 2021, which accounted for a 6% year-on-year enlargement as call for for its mid-tier telephones higher.
Samsung this week stated it expects call for for smartphones and drugs within the present quarter to say no from the October-December duration because of vulnerable seasonality and uncertainties over element provide. However the corporate stated it plans to enlarge gross sales of its flagship Galaxy S collection gadgets and roll out aggressive, mass-market 5G handsets.
Counterpoint famous that a few of Samsung’s enlargement was once restricted via rising festival in markets like India and Latin The united states.
Apple, which reported record-high marketplace proportion in China final quarter, noticed its world smartphone shipments develop via 18% yr on yr to 237.9 million gadgets on account of the robust efficiency of the iPhone 12 collection. Its cargo quantity grew in key markets like the US, China, Europe and India.
“In China, it turned into the highest smartphone logo in This autumn after six years because of the iPhone 13, as a result overtaking Samsung as the highest smartphone globally in This autumn 2021,” Counterpoint Analysis stated in its file.
Chinese language smartphone maker Xiaomi noticed its world cargo develop via 31% yr on yr to 190 million gadgets. Despite the fact that its cargo quantity was once considerably at the back of that of Samsung and Apple, Xiaomi has grown in recent times to change into the third-largest smartphone maker on this planet.
In truth, it is now the highest smartphone logo in India after dethroning Samsung in 2018.
Oppo and Vivo additionally registered double-digit growths final yr, delivery 143.2 million and 131.3 million gadgets, respectively.
Counterpoint Analysis stated in its file that there is explanation why to be constructive for the smartphone trade’s enlargement potentialities in 2022 if the sector will get a care for at the pandemic and if provide chain shortages are resolved via the center of the yr.
Some analysts and traders, then again, be expecting the worldwide chip scarcity to final until finish of this yr or smartly into 2023.
