Samsung to lead smartphone market with 272 million shipments in 2021

Global smartphone shipments will total 1.35 billion units in 2021, up 5.7 percent, despite the chip shortage, IDC said.

what you need to know

• Smartphone manufacturers will ship 1.35 billion units in 2021, a slight increase from the previous year.
• Samsung led the smartphone market last year with a 20.1 percent market share, followed by Apple and Xiaomi.
• However, in the fourth quarter of 2021, global smartphone shipments declined by 3.2% year-on-year.

According to a new report from International Data Corporation, Samsung will ship the most smartphones worldwide in 2021, with 272 million units sold that year.

The South Korean tech giant captured the top spot in the global smartphone market last year with a 20.1 percent market share, beating out Apple, which had a 17.4 percent market share after shipping 235.7 million phones during the year. Xiaomi ranked third with 191 million units shipped, followed by OPPO with 133.5 million and vivo with 128.3 million.

Overall, global smartphone shipments will reach 1.35 billion units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%. On the other hand, the IDC report highlights both good and bad news about global smartphone shipments. Despite a positive annual growth rate in 2021, phone shipments in the fourth quarter of last year were lower than in the same period last year due to a shortage of components. IDC said smartphone vendors shipped a total of 362.4 million handsets during the period), down 3.2% year over year.

“As we mentioned last quarter, supply chain and component shortages are starting to have a meaningful impact on the smartphone market as we move into the second half of the year, and that remains the case as we move into 2022 now,” Ryan said Reith, group vice president of Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers at IDC.

IDC noted that the drop in smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter marked “the second consecutive quarter of negative growth.” The market research firm reported last year that the global smartphone market fell 6.7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021.

That said, annual shipments were able to grow thanks to a strong first half. Reith added that IDC has seen increased consumer interest in new form factors such as the best 5G phones and foldable phones.