Global Smartphone Shipment Drops 8.8 Percent In Q1 2021

Smartphone illustration (Rami Al-zayat / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Global smartphone shipments will still experience a decline of 8.8 percent in early 2021. This is due to the prolonged effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on a new research report from DigiTimes, it was noted that during that period, smartphone shipments only reached 1.24 billion units, with the main cause of the decline being the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

But on the other hand, apart from the decline in smartphone shipments, 5G-capable devices have actually experienced a significant increase, reaching 280 to 300 million units in last year's shipments.

This increase is up from 20 million units last year, which can be concluded that there is a ten-fold growth in one year.

During the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, worldwide smartphone shipments fell by more than 20 percent year-on-year (Year-of-Year / YoY).

Double-digit drop quickly in the second quarter and the market recovered in the third quarter, experiencing only a single digit drop in shipments.

In particular, the fourth and final quarter saw a single digit increase in shipments, marking the pent up demand for smartphones from consumers around the world.

The DigiTimes research report also adds that there are six top major brands that dominate the smartphone market, including Samsung Electronics, Apple, Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo.

Among all these OEM companies, Apple and Xiaomi have managed to increase their shipments by more than 10 percent each year.

On the other hand, Samsung and Huawei experienced double-digit drops in shipments during the same period.