Samsung, Vivo eat into Apple's dominant 5G smartphone lead

Apple's command of the global 5G smartphone market held in the first quarter of 2021, though competitors are closing in fast in what has become an increasingly liquid segment.

Apple shipped an estimated 40.4 million 5G-capable iPhones in the first quarter to take a 29.8% share of the global market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. That figure is down 23% sequentially, and competing companies are quickly picking up the slack.

Second place Oppo shipped 21.5 million units for a 15.8% marketshare over the same period, up 55% from the last quarter of 2020.

Vivo managed 19.4 million shipments for 14.3% of the market, while Samsung hit 17 million units shipped for a 12.5% slice of the pie. Sales for the two firms grew by 62% and 79%, respectively.

Xiaomi, which shipped 16.6 million 5G handsets during the quarter, came away with 12.2% of the market, up 41% quarter-over-quarter.

"Samsung is performing well with new 5G models, such as Galaxy S21 5G, S21 ultra 5G and S21+ 5G, in South Korea, North America, and parts of Europe," said Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, associate director at Strategy Analytics. "Meanwhile, Apple dipped 23% quarter-over-quarter, following a blowout Q4 2020 where the new 5G iPhone was wildly popular as a gift during the holiday season."

The research firm forecasts global 5G smartphone shipments to reach 624 million units during 2021, a huge rise from 269 million sold across 2020.

Apple's launched its first 5G iPhone series last fall with the release of iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 mini. Compatibility with speedy mmWave 5G technology was restricted to the U.S., though access to slower sub-6GHz bands was apparently enough to spur a sales bump in China.

The new connectivity capability helped fuel a major boost in iPhone sales for the three-month period ending in March. Whether the company is able to carry that momentum through to its usual fall hardware refresh is unclear.

Apple is expected to deliver mmWave 5G to more countries with this year's "iPhone 13" upgrade cycle.

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35 Comments

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

About 3 years ago

Wait a minute… 5G “Late” Apple is #1 in market share?? Aaahahahahaha!!!!

avon b7 8008 comments · 20 Years

Beats said:

Wait a minute… 5G “Late” Apple is #1 in market share?? Aaahahahahaha!!!!

Late? Most definitely!

Q3 2020 saw Apple with zero in units shipped and of course marketshare.

Fast forward to Q1 of 2021 and, according to Strategy Analytics, Apple is seeing massive QoQ losses already both in unit shipments and marketshare.

And you may be surprised (shocked even!) to know that even in Q1 2021, Apple is not the #1 company for 5G handset marketshare or units shipped. The devil is in the details.

And all this with Huawei being unable to compete.

entropys 4302 comments · 13 Years

My my, new releases cause spike in sales and decline as the product ages (relatively). Who would have thought?

davidw 2112 comments · 17 Years

avon b7 said:

Beats said:

Wait a minute… 5G “Late” Apple is #1 in market share?? Aaahahahahaha!!!!

Late? Most definitely!

Q3 2020 saw Apple with zero in units shipped and of course marketshare.

Fast forward to Q1 of 2021 and, according to Strategy Analytics, Apple is seeing massive QoQ losses already both in unit shipments and marketshare.

And you may be surprised (shocked even!) to know that even in Q1 2021, Apple is not the #1 company for 5G handset marketshare or units shipped. The devil is in the details.

And all this with Huawei being unable to compete.

Well, at least we now know you are not the Devil. Your post is lacking in a lot of detail.

Every report I've seen, Apple is the "5G" leader in 1st Q 2021 market share with about 40% of the 5G units sold, (in the 1st Q of 2021).

You may be surprise (shock even), to know that there is usually a massive loss of sales (with nearly every company dealing in retail) every 1st Q of the year, when comparing QoQ. That's because the 1st Q of the year comes after the Holiday Q of the last year. The Holiday Q is usually the Q with the highest sales of the year for any company dealing in retail. This is why investors compare year to year Q. Apple is up 100% in units sold when compared to 1st Q of 2020. But it's down 23% when compared to 4th Q of 2020. Which is expected coming off a good Holiday Q. No real bad news there. Nor a surprise for the knowledgable investors. And hold on to your hat, this might come as even a bigger shock to you. Apple's 2nd Q of the year is usually their slowest Q. So Apple might even report more loses QoQ. But still maintain a sizable gain when comparing YoY Q. (Even that might not be a fair comparison as in the 2nd Q of 2020, we were in the middle of the pandemic and sales were exceptionally down for everyone, everywhere.)

Then you got it wrong about claiming that Apple was not the 5G handset leader in Q1 2021. Apple for sure was the 5G leader in marketshare in Q1 of 2021. What Apple wasn't, was the leader in all smartphones sold. As usual, that belongs to Samsung with 22%. Apple was second with 17%. In case you are unaware (and might even be shocked), not all smartphones sold in 1st Q of 2021 were 5G. (I'm pretty sure Apple discontinued all non 5G iPhones by the end of 2020, but not sure. Maybe they still sold old inventory in 1st Q)

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/

lorca2770 72 comments · 15 Years

davidw said:

avon b7 said:

Beats said:

Wait a minute… 5G “Late” Apple is #1 in market share?? Aaahahahahaha!!!!

Late? Most definitely!

Q3 2020 saw Apple with zero in units shipped and of course marketshare.

Fast forward to Q1 of 2021 and, according to Strategy Analytics, Apple is seeing massive QoQ losses already both in unit shipments and marketshare.

And you may be surprised (shocked even!) to know that even in Q1 2021, Apple is not the #1 company for 5G handset marketshare or units shipped. The devil is in the details.

And all this with Huawei being unable to compete.

Well, at least we now know you are not the Devil. Your post is lacking in a lot of detail.

Every report I've seen, Apple is the "5G" leader in 1st Q 2021 market share with about 40% of the 5G units sold, (in the 1st Q of 2021).

You may be surprise (shock even), to know that there is usually a massive loss of sales (with nearly every company dealing in retail) every 1st Q of the year, when comparing QoQ. That's because the 1st Q of the year comes after the Holiday Q of the last year. The Holiday Q is usually the Q with the highest sales of the year for any company dealing in retail. This is why investors compare year to year Q. Apple is up 100% in units sold when compared to 1st Q of 2020. But it's down 23% when compared to 4th Q of 2020. Which is expected coming off a good Holiday Q. No real bad news there. Nor a surprise for the knowledgable investors. And hold on to your hat, this might come as even a bigger shock to you. Apple's 2nd Q of the year is usually their slowest Q. So Apple might even report more loses QoQ. But still maintain a sizable gain when comparing YoY Q. (Even that might not be a fair comparison as in the 2nd Q of 2020, we were in the middle of the pandemic and sales were exceptionally down for everyone, everywhere.)

Then you got it wrong about claiming that Apple was not the 5G handset leader in Q1 2021. Apple for sure was the 5G leader in marketshare in Q1 of 2021. What Apple wasn't, was the leader in all smartphones sold. As usual, that belongs to Samsung with 22%. Apple was second with 17%. In case you are unaware (and might even be shocked), not all smartphones sold in 1st Q of 2021 were 5G. (I'm pretty sure Apple discontinued all non 5G iPhones by the end of 2020, but not sure. Maybe they still sold old inventory in 1st Q)

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/

Hear, hear!