The 2020 crisis was unprecedented in scale and impact on all markets. This year seemed to be a turning point, the impression was that the problems were successfully solved, users again reached out to stores for brand new smartphones, because this is a favorite device of several generations, a device without which it is impossible to imagine your life.
But the rise in the incidence of COVID-19 in several Asian countries and the ongoing shortage of chips continue to impact the smartphone market. TrendForce experts report that smartphone production in the second quarter of this year decreased by 11% compared to the first quarter of 2021 and amounted to 307 million units. True, against the background of indicators for the same period last year, there was an increase of 10%.
Smartphone production declined in the Q2 of 2021
The largest manufacturer of mobile devices remains Samsung, which released 58.5 million smartphones between April and June. But this is 23.5% less than the production of the first quarter of 2021. The serious decline was due to the outbreak of coronavirus in India and Vietnam, which provoked a reduction and suspension of production at the company’s factories located in these countries.
Analysts predict that by the end of 2021 Samsung should retain its leadership in the smartphone market; but this will not be easy for the company against the backdrop of increasing competition, especially from Chinese companies.
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Oppo and Xiaomi
Oppo and Xiaomi have each 49.5 million smartphones released in the second quarter of 2021. The calculation was carried out taking into account the products released by the companies’ sub-brands. So, analysts in the Xiaomi asset included devices released under the brands Redmi, POCO and Black Shark; and for Oppo: Realme and OnePlus.
Compared to the same period last year, Oppo’s figure has grown by 80%, and Xiaomi’s smartphone production has skyrocketed by 70%. But against the background of the first quarter of this year, the production of devices decreased slightly. Among the reasons for the growth of companies are the fall of Huawei; and they managed to grab a large share of the baned company. Samsung will have to work hard to withstand the onslaught of Oppo and Xiaomi.
iPhone
As for Apple, iPhone release has also declined. The reason is that the company is in a transitional phase between the release of the iPhone 12 and the upcoming release of the iPhone 13. In total, 42 million iPhones were produced in the second quarter of 2021, which is 22% less than in the first quarter of this year. Despite the fact that Apple turned out to be a forward-looking company and placed its orders with component suppliers in advance, there is no guarantee that the outbreak of COVID-19 in a number of countries will not negatively affect the release of iPhone 13. For example, in the same Malaysia, where some of the components are produced.
In fifth place was Vivo, with 34 million smartphones from April to June 2021. The outbreak of coronavirus in India did not allow it to perform better. The share of the company should slightly decrease in the third quarter of this year; due to the strengthening of the positions of Samsung and Apple. Nevertheless, it is among those who have managed to benefit from the decline in Huawei’s share.
