Samsung Leads Q3 Global Smartphone Shipments, Apple Beats Xiaomi Amid Market Slowdown: IDC

Samsung continued to reign over the global smartphone market in third quarter even as overall shipments declined, reports IDC. The South Korean tech giant is said to have shipped 69 million handsets in Q3 to secure a 20.8 percent market share. The new data suggests that worldwide smartphone shipments declined 6.7 percent year-on-year (YoY). Even though Samsung sliced the biggest portion of the market, it saw a YoY decline of 14.2 percent in shipments. Apple reportedly trumped Xiaomi to take the second position in the global smartphone market and witnessed the biggest YoY growth of 20.8 percent.

IDC's third-quarter report for global smartphone shipments in 2021 suggests that the double-digit growth seen in the early quarter has now come to an end. This decline is largely attributed to the supply chain and component shortages faced in the industry. Samsung's shipments declined from 80.4 million in Q3 2020 to 60.9 million Q3 2021. Its YoY market share reduced from 22.7 percent to 20.8 percent, seeing a YoY decline in growth by 14.2 percent. Xiaomi slid down to the third position with its shipments declining from 46.5 million in Q3 2020 to 44.3 million this year in the same quarter. A year-on-year decline of 4.6 percent bore witness, as per IDC.

Apple secured the second position, according to IDC, by shipping 50.4 million units in the third quarter of this year compared to 41.7 million in the same quarter last year. Its market share reportedly saw a significant increase from 11.7 percent in Q3 2020 to 15.2 percent in Q3 2021.

Vivo and Oppo reportedly shipped 33.3 million and 33.2 million smartphone units in Q3 2021, respectively. The two OEMs saw positive annual growth, unlike Samsung and Xiaomi. Oppo registered an annual growth of 6.8 percent while Vivo saw annual growth of 5.8 percent in Q3 2021, reports IDC.

The data says the worldwide smartphone shipments stood at 331.2 million in Q3 2021, a YoY decline compared to the same period last year. The report says that the slowdown in shipments was due to supply chain problems and more pronounced in regions like Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Asia/ Pacific (excluding Japan and China) (APeJC). However, in regions like the US, Western Europe, and China, the declines were much less pronounced, as these regions are usually given priority by vendors.