BOSTON—Global smartphone shipments fell -11% YoY to 314 million units in Q1 2022 but Samsung topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 24% share, the highest first quarter performance over the past five years, reports Strategy Analytics.
Apple was in second place with 18% share. Xiaomi, OPPO (including OnePlus) and vivo stayed in the top five list.
“Global smartphone shipments fell -11% YoY to 314 million units in Q1 2022,” said Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics. “This is the third consecutive quarter of annual decline by smartphone volumes. Factory constraints and component shortages continued to restrict smartphone supply in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, unfavorable economic conditions, geopolitical issues, as well as COVID-19 disruption (China rolling lockdown etc.) continued to weaken consumers’ demand on smartphones and other non-essential products.”
“We estimate Samsung shipped 75 million smartphones and topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 24% share in Q1 2022,” added Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics. “It is the vendor’s highest first quarter performance by market share since 2017. Demand was strong for the newly launched flagship Galaxy S22 series, especially the higher-priced S22 Ultra model. Meanwhile, Samsung continues to ramp up mass market A series in multiple markets. Apple shipped 57 million iPhones worldwide, up +1% YoY, for 18% global marketshare in Q1 2022. Apple had a good quarter, led by iPhone 13 series and the newly launched iPhone SE (2022), which starts to become a volume driver in lower segment. Apple also captured the highest first quarter market share since 2013, at the expense of leading Chinese brands who are hampered by the sluggish home market.”
For the full year the company is forecasting a slight decline of 1% to 2% in 2022, said Sui. “This year will be a tale of two halves,” she said. “Geopolitical issues, component shortages, price inflation, exchange rate volatility, and Covid disruption will continue to weigh on the smartphone market during the first half of 2022, before the situation eases in the second half due to Covid vaccines, interest rate rises by central banks, and less supply disruption at factories.”
