Smartphone shipments surged 24 percent to 340 million units in Q1 2021, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.
This is the highest smartphone growth since 2015 — driven by the healthy demand of consumers with aging devices and a phenomenal 5G smartphone push from Chinese vendors.
China smartphone shipments increased 35 percent reaching 94 million units in Q1 2021. Globally, the top five vendors combined took a 76 percent market share in Q1 2021, up from 71 percent one year ago.
Chip shortages and supply side constraints did not have a significant impact in Q1 2021 among the top 5 brands but was and will be a concern for smaller vendors over the next few quarters.
Samsung is the largest smartphone vendor shipping 77 million smartphones globally in the first quarter, growing 32 percent from 58 million units in Q1 2020.
Samsung’s affordable A series 4G and 5G smartphones, and Galaxy S21 series combined drove solid performance in the quarter.
Apple shipped 57 million units iPhones worldwide, capturing second place with a 17 percent volume market share – driven by 5G iPhone 12 series.
Xiaomi held third place in terms of volume of smartphones shipped for the second quarter in a row. Xiaomi shipped 49 million smartphones and took 15 percent market share in Q1 2021, up from 10 percent one year ago.
Xiaomi maintained strong momentum in both India and China.
OPPO (not including Realme and OnePlus) won 11 percent market share and remained the fourth largest smartphone vendor.
Vivo, the fifth largest smartphone maker based on smartphone share, grew 85 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
