Shipments of smartphones are increasing as the recovery process begins

Shipments of smartphones are expected to grow 7.4 per cent throughout 2021, with an estimated 1.37 billion units shipped globally.

This will be followed by 3.4 per cent growth in 2022.

This is according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, which attributes the 7.4 per cent growth to a 13.8 per cent leap from Apple devices, and a 6.2 per cent growth from all Android devices. 5G phones are a primary driver of this growth, making up 570 million of total units.

While this represents a recovery of sorts, the 2021 shipment figures are still below 2019 in Europe, the U.S, and China.

China currently has 47.1 per cent of the 5G global market share, followed by the U.S (16 per cent), India (6.1 per cent) and Japan with 4.1 per cent.

“The smartphone market was better prepared from a supply chain perspective heading into 2020 given almost all regions were expecting to grow and vendors were preparing accordingly,” said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

“2020 was a bust due to the pandemic but all of the top brands continued forward with their production plans with the main difference that the timeline was pushed out. Therefore, we are at a point where inventory levels are much healthier than PCs and some other adjacent markets and we are seeing the resilience of consumer demand in recent quarterly results.”