Smartphone sales reportedly slumped 6.8% year-on-year in the third quarter as ongoing supply chain problems prevented manufacturers from meeting consumer demand amid dwindling inventories.
According to Gartner’s recent study of the global smartphone market, supply shortages in chip components such as radiofrequency and power management chips led to production failures worldwide.
This hit all major smartphone manufacturers hard, resulting in sales of just over 342 million units, a significant decline from the 366 million shipments in the third quarter of 2020.
Samsung, which also makes its own chip components, remained in the lead with a 20.2% market share, even though its market share would shrink by 1.9% in 2020. The Korean electronics giant’s smartphone sales were boosted by its premium smartphone lines, particularly its latest foldable smartphone updates.
Apple reclaimed the second spot, dethroning Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi by capturing 14.1% of the market, up from 3.1% in 2020. The tech giant owes this success to its combination of the launches of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.
Despite the third place, Xiaomi grew 0.9% to 13% of total sales, according to Gartner, mainly due to growing partnerships with European and Middle Eastern telecommunications service providers.
Xiaomi’s fellow Chinese smartphone makers Vivo and OPPO round out the top five, with Vivo showing the most notable growth on the list, taking 10.5% of the market and finishing in fourth place. Growth was driven largely by robust sales in European and Middle Eastern markets.
This impressive performance broke the band it shared with OPPO in 2020. OPPO also grew, albeit more subdued, ending the quarter with 9.8% of all shipments for fifth place.