Counterpoint and IDC: smartphone shipments grew about 5% to 1.35B+ units in 2021; Samsung took the top spot with 270M+ units, followed by Apple with 235M+
Companies shipped 1.35 billion smartphones in 2021, a 5.7% increase over the previous year, market researcher IDC said Thursday.
Later coverage shows a markedly slower market than the 2021 rebound, with global shipments up only 2% in 2025 even as Apple led annual share. The significance is less the one-year volume gain than the start of a tightly contested Samsung-Apple leadership cycle.
First-order effects
Samsung's more than 270 million shipments make it the 2021 volume leader, while Apple's more than 235 million units leave it the nearest large-scale challenger.
The roughly 5% market increase lifts the addressable shipment base for both leaders after the prior year's comparison period.
Second-order effects
Apple and Samsung's narrow leadership contest becomes more consequential as market growth slows: Apple ultimately led 2025 shipments and share, while Samsung remained only one share point behind.
Vendor rank becomes more volatile than total demand: Samsung's 2021 annual lead, Apple's 2023 lead, and Samsung's early-2024 quarterly recovery show that share shifts can occur without sustained market expansion.
Third-order effects
If the later low-single-digit growth pattern persists, the smartphone market will be defined less by unit-market expansion than by recurring share transfers between Apple and Samsung.
The durable competitive question shifts from who benefits from a broad rebound to which of the two leaders can maintain shipment share through a slow-growth cycle.
The trend: Smartphone shipments are moving from rebound-led growth toward a mature, slow-growth market in which Apple and Samsung trade leadership.
* Global Annual Smartphone Market Grew for the First Time Since 2017 * Record Annual Shipments for Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo * Motorola the fastest growing top 10 smartphone OEM in 2021 * realme entered the top 5 Android OEM globally for the first time https://www.counterpointres…
Worldwide smartphone shipments declined 3.2% year over year in Q4 2021 while full-year shipments grew 5.7% in 2021, according to preliminary data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. https://www.idc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Here we go - 4Q21 Smartphone numbers: Quick summary - worldwide shipments were down in 4Q21 but up for 2021. Apple moved back to #1 in Q4 despite volumes being down YoY...iPhone 13 did great and helped drive up revenue up https://www.idc.com/...
Since 2019, Apple has maintained the #1 spot in smartphones sales for the holiday quarter. Given what we know about the bulk of buyers in this Q (skewing more premium) this is extremely telling. Fully expect Apple to keep taking the top spot at holiday for years to come.
@Apple gets Top Spot in Q421 shipping nearly 85M devices and capturing 23.4% global #smartphone share - Total WW smartphone market shipped 362.4M devices in Q421, dipping by 3.2% YoY due to continuing supply constraints, per latest @IDC tracker data https://idc.com/... https://tw…
🌍Global #smartphone shipments grew 4% YoY to reach 1.39 billion units in 2021 📱Samsung led the market with annual shipments of 271 million units 📱Apple surpassed Samsung to become the top smartphone vendor in Q4 2021, shipping 81.5 million units Post: https://www.counterpointrese…
@Apple ... 📱@SamsungMobile led the CY2021 shipping 271M smartphones marred by supply chain disruptions. 📱@Apple recorded highest ever annual 238M iPhones shipped 📱@Xiaomi was the fastest growing brand & third largest globally https://www.counterpointresearch.com/ ... https://twit…
@Apple ... Both @oppo and vivo also saw significant growth in China and elsewhere thanks to Huawei exit. However, the rise of @Honorglobal as an independent brand will shake up the market in 2022 as Huawei relegated to beyond top ten brands. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/ …
@Apple ... Talking about Q4'21 - the “Apple quarter” 📱@Apple led the iPhone launch quarter registering record revenues, but flat shipments. 📱@SamsungMobile grew 8% Y/Y cementing 2nd spot. 📱Total market declined 6% to 371M units due to supply constraints. https://www.counterpointr…
@Apple ... latest global smartphone landscape prelim analysis is out for Q4'21 and 2021! After the great “every decade” dip, smartphone market bounced back despite pandemic & supply chain constraints! Global smartphones mkt reached 1391 Bn units. https://www.counterpointresearch.…