What They Say
Counterpoint Research published some interesting data on the smartphone market in the US and China as well as looking at the overall development of the market over the last five years.
The firm pointed out that in China :
- Apple reached its highest ever share in Q4, with 23% share, although over the year it was up by 47% to 16% share. Apple profited from picking up premium Huawei business and better pricing.
- Realme was the fastest growing brand (+84% YoY)
- vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi all launched self-developed chipsets to showcase their investments in semiconductors. OPPO and HONOR also launched foldable flagship models, with more mature designs and highly customized software, especially for Chinese users.
In the US:
- Sales for Q5 were flat with premium phones in short supply.
- Apple remained totally dominant (57%) ahead of Samsung.
- There was a high level of churn among carriers and in hardware sales, T-Mobile was the largest smartphone channel in the US and grew modestly YoY. Verizon was the second largest smartphone channel and was flat YoY. AT&T was the third largest channel and its smartphone volumes fell just over 4% YoY.
- Carrier whitelabeled devices also had an impressive quarter, accounting for 8% of the total smartphones in the sub-$250 price band.
- Motorola sold the largest number of smartphones in the US market in its history, beating its Q4 2019 performance. The brand benefitted from the demise of LG and its strong lineup of affordable devices.
- OnePlus sales were up 524% YoY with its Nord device via T-Mobile which gained entry into over 2,000 Walmart locations.
- Google grew its sales 56% YoY with the launch of its redesigned Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, featuring Google’s own silicon.
Overall the global market was up by 4% for the year to 1.39 billion units, although Q4 was down 6% to reach 371 million units
- Samsung was #1 with 271 million units over the year, although Apple was #1 in Q4 with 81.5 million unit sales and 237.9 million for the year.
- Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO^ and vivo recorded their highest-ever annual shipments.
- The top five brands gained share thanks to a significant decline by Huawei, and LG’s exit from the market.
- Xiaomi’s global smartphone shipments grew 31% YoY to reach a record 190 million units in 2021.
What We Think
It’s intriguing for someone like me that has not been particularly close to the handset market to see how the regions vary so much. And it’s always astonishing to see how dominant Apple is in the US. (BR)
