Global Smartphone Shipments Down 6.45% in Q3 2021

A Counterpoint Research report indicates that global smartphone shipments reached 342 million units in Q3 2021. This represents a decrease of approximately 6.45% year-on-year (YoY) compared to the 365.6 million units shipped in the same period of the previous year.

Samsung maintained its leading position with 69.3 million smartphone shipments. However, this figure is down 13.80% YoY compared to the 80.4 million units shipped in the same period last year.

Apple secured second place with 48 million smartphone shipments. This represents a 15.11% YoY increase compared to the 41.7 million units shipped in July-September 2020.

Xiaomi followed with 44.4 million smartphone shipments worldwide, showing a 3.26% YoY growth. Vivo and OPPO followed with 33.7 million and 33.6 million smartphone shipments respectively. The growth in shipments for these two brands was recorded at 8.70% and 8.38% YoY respectively.

However, the smartphone market experienced a 6% YoY decline due to ongoing global component shortages and slow recovery in key markets such as China and parts of Europe.

Counterpoint Research Director Tarun Pathak stated that the decline in global smartphone shipments is due to supply chain constraints and the global semiconductor shortage, impacting end consumers. Due to supply-demand mismatch, most components used in smartphones experienced increased price movements, forcing some major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to increase the retail prices of several models.