Smartphone vendors shipped nearly 346-million devices during the first quarter of the year – equivalent to 25.5% year-on-year in the global smartphone market accelerated.

Preliminary data from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC’s) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reveals strong growth from all regions during the quarter.

However, the greatest gains emerged from China and Asia Pacific, the latter excluding Japan and China, which reported year-on-year growth of 30% and 28% respectively and accounted for half of all global smartphone shipments in the first quarter.

“The recovery is proceeding faster than we expected, clearly demonstrating a healthy appetite for smartphones globally,” says IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Tracker research director Nabila Popal.

She points out that, while the first quarter of 2020 was one of the worst-performing quarters in smartphone history, owing to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when the bulk of the supply chain was at a halt and China was in full lockdown, the 2021 first-quarter growth was 11% higher than growth in the first quarter of 2019.

This indicates the importance of smartphones in everyday life, she says, noting that this trend is expected to continue into a postpandemic world with many consumers carrying forward the new smartphone use cases which emerged from the pandemic.

Competitive Landscape Meanwhile, as the smartphone market recovers, the IDC notes a major shift in the competitive landscape, with Huawei having slipped from the top five for the first time in many years.

The information and communication technology giant suffered significant market declines under US sanctions.

Chinese vendors Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo all reported market-share growth during the first quarter, placing them in third, fourth and fifth places globally, with shares of 14.1%, 10.8% and 10.1% respectively.

Xiaomi shipped 46.8-million units, while OPPO and vivo shipped 37.5-million and 34.9-million respectively, compared with the respective 29.5-million, 22.8-million and 24.8-million shipped in the first quarter of 2020.

“All three vendors are increasing their focus in international markets where Huawei had grown its share in recent years. In the low- to mid-priced segment, it is these vendors that are gaining the most from Huawei’s decline, while most of the high-end share is going to Apple and Samsung,” explains IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Tracker programme VP Ryan Reith.

Samsung regained the top spot in the first quarter of 2021 with shipments of 75.3-million devices and a 21.8% share, compared with 58.4-million devices and a 21.2% share in the first quarter of 2020, while Apple held second place with shipments of 55.2-million and a market share of 16%, compared with 36.7-million devices and a 13.3% share in the comparative quarter last year.

“While Huawei continues its decline in the smartphone market, we have also learned that LG is exiting the market altogether,” says Reith.

“Most of LG's volume was in the Americas, with North America accounting for over 50% of its volume and Latin America another 30%. Despite the vendor losing ground in recent years, they still had 9% of the North America market and 6% of Latin America,” he continues.