The COVID-19 still rampages in most regions of the world through first-half 2021 with some countries in a more desperate situation now than 2020. Smartphone supply however no longer suffers serious disruptions as it did in first-half 2020 but market demand has only recovered to a limited extent.
Based on Digitimes Research's estimates, global smartphone shipments will exhibit double-digit year-over-year growth in both the first and second quarter of 2021 due to a low comparison base a year ago.
The top-5 brands in terms of first-half 2021 smartphone shipments are Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, each of which enjoys large annual growth with Xiaomi doubling its growth.
Chart 1: Global shipments by China and non-China markets, 3Q20-2Q21 (m units)
Chart 2: Global shipments by top brands, 1H20 and 1H21 (m units)
Chart 3: Global shipments by China and non-China markets, 2020-2021 (m units)
Chart 7: Global 5G and non-5G smartphone shipments, 2020-2025 (m units)
Chart 10: Global foldable and non-foldable smartphone shipments, 2020-2025 (m units)
