The race for the most successful smartphone manufacturer in the world is not surprising once more this year. The South Korean electronics giant Samsung takes on the American tech giant Apple on. So far seems Samsung winning the battle, as the available market data shows.
Samsung in 1st place
Initial analyzes of various providers and shares of global smartphone deliveries are available for the first quarter of the current year. It turns out that Samsung shipped 73.6 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2022, the highest volume of any manufacturer. That was 17 million units more than its closest challenger Apple. With that reached Samsung a global market share of 23.4 percent in smartphone sales.
Samsung has been very successful in serving the needs of customers for a long time. Added to this is the sheer variety of devices. While Apple presents regarding two or three devices per year, three devices per year come from South Korea for the lower and middle price range of the smartphone market, so that one has gained a clear competitive advantage
How did Samsung’s competition fare?
Apple is in second place with 56 million smartphones sold. This puts Apple’s market share at 18 percent, up 2.2 percent year-on-year. Additionally, the California tech giant was the only OEM in the smartphone sector to post positive growth.
Global market share of smartphone manufacturers in Q1 2022 (market share in percent, source: IDC)
The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi took third place following Apple. The Beijing-headquartered company shipped 39.9 million phones in the first quarter of 2022, accounting for nearly 13 percent of all global smartphone shipments during that period. However, this number represents a decline in Xiaomi’s market share by regarding 18 percent year-on-year.
Other Chinese manufacturers Oppo and Vivo complete the top five smartphone vendors by volume. Oppo’s market share was 8.7 percent following shipping 27.4 million devices, down 27 percent year-on-year. Vivo produced 25.3 million devices, accounting for 8.1 percent of the global market, down 28 percent year-on-year. Other manufacturers shared 29.1 percent of the market with 91.4 million devices delivered.
Smartphone shipments are declining worldwide
According to analyzes by IDC, the International Data Corporation, global smartphone shipments shrank by 8.9 percent in the first quarter of 22 compared to the same quarter last year. This was the third consecutive quarter that the smartphone market saw shipments decline. The sector reached regarding 314 million units, nearly 3.5 percent less than IDC forecast in February.
Nabila Popal, research director at IDC, attributes this decline to current shortages in the supply of key components for phone manufacturing. The supply chain is limited to a comparatively small number of critical suppliers. In addition, global inflation and economic uncertainties have dampened demand and spending, particularly in China, Popal said. This, together with the Ukraine war, has created uncertainties that are forcing manufacturers to scale back their growth forecasts for 2022.
For his part, IDC’s Ryan Reith says Samsung and Apple have met supply chain challenges better than their peers. By doing so, they have avoided the slumps that other manufacturers have experienced. Therefore, he believes that the drop in demand is only temporary and will recover once the global economy stabilizes.
Sources: International Data Corporation (IDC) (English), banklesstimes (English)
