- May 17, 2021
According to Canalys, global smartphone shipment reached 347.4mn units in 1Q21, up 27.5% YoY/down 3.4% QoQ. Given the low base last year and 5G upgrade cycle, the strong YoY growth was within the expectation, however, the seasonal sequential decline narrowed to 3.4% indicated that the sector recovery was gaining steam. China market grew 6.9% QoQ, thanks to a large number of new models launched. Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Apple continued to gain market share from Huawei and Honor. In Europe, the shipment was recovering as the easing of pandemic restrictions unleashed the demand. Xiaomi clocked its best single-quarter performance ever and surpassed Apple to rank top 2 for the first time in Europe market. However, India, as the important smartphone market and manufacturing base, has recently seen a surge in COVID-19 cases, which might arouse concerns in shipment growth ahead, in our view.
