NEEDHAM, MA – Worldwide smartphone shipments were 362.4 million during the fourth quarter, down 3.2% year-over-year, according to International Data Corp, the second straight quarter of negative growth.

On an annual basis, the market grew 5.7% in 2021, with 1.35 billion smartphones shipped, thanks to a strong first half.

"There's no question the second half of 2021 failed to meet expectations, with volumes declining 4.5% compared to the second half of 2020," said Ryan Reith, group vice president, IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "As we mentioned last quarter, the supply chain and component shortages started to have meaningful impact on the smartphone market as we entered the second half of the year, and this continues to be the case as we've now entered 2022. We expect to see supply and logistical challenges continue through the first half of this year, but we currently believe we'll return to growth in the second quarter and second half of 2022. There is no question demand is still strong in many markets, and to some extent we are seeing increasing consumer interest in 5G and new form factors like foldables."

Despite a slight year-over-year decline in shipments, Apple had an impressive holiday quarter, once again jumping above Samsung into the top spot, says IDC. iPhone 13 SKUs were an impressive portion of volumes in the holiday quarter, driving strong growth in overall iPhone average selling prices. Samsung and Xiaomi followed with the second and third spots, the only vendors out of the top five that grew shipments year-over-year in the fourth quarter. OPPO and vivo rounded out the top five.

For the full year, all five vendors grew shipments year-over-year, with four out of five achieving double-digit growth. While Xiaomi had the highest annual growth, reaching nearly 30%, Samsung had the lowest with 6% growth in 2021. This contrast illustrates which vendor benefitted the most from the massive decline of Huawei, says IDC. Apple had healthy annual growth of 15.9% in 2021 for reasons already mentioned, as well as due to 40% growth in China.

"The fact that 2021 would have come in drastically higher if it were not for the supply constraints adds even more positivity to the healthy 5.7% growth we saw for 2021," said Nabila Popal, research director, IDC's Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "To me it gives a message there is significant pent-up demand in almost all regions. Even in China, where there are some challenges around weakening consumer demand, the market performed much better in the fourth quarter than expected, 5% better to be exact, albeit still a year-over-year decline. With channel inventory low in almost all regions and as supply constraints ease up toward the middle of the year, IDC expects this pent-up demand to drive the market toward healthy growth in 2022."

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