Canalys: smartphone shipments down 11% in Q1, Apple and Samsung rise compared to last year

Q1 tends to be slow, but this year there are additional factors (the war in Ukraine, new lockdowns in China, global inflation) that led to an 11% drop in smartphone shipments. The two leading makers, Samsung and Apple, released sought-after phones, which helped them expand their market shares, while the other three in the Top 5 dropped off a bit.

Samsung is back on top with a 24% share, up from 19% in the holiday quarter and 22% in Q1 last year. As usual, the launch of the iPhones near the end of the year caused Apple to surge in Q4, but Samsung reclaimed the top spot with strong sales of the Galaxy S22 flagships and a solid demand for the Galaxy A-series.

Apple is doing quite well too. Despite reports of reduced production, the third generation iPhone SE is an “important mid-range volume driver for Apple”, write the analysts at Canalys. Carriers are demanding 5G phones to sell and the SE (2022) is the cheapest 5G iPhone. The iPhone 13 series continues to be a strong seller as well.

Xiaomi is holding on to third place with a 13% market share, a percentage point lower than last year. The relatively strong performance is credited to the popular Redmi Note series.

The Oppo numbers include OnePlus phones and sit at 10% (down from 11% a year ago). That’s a percentage point higher than in Q4, but the company still trails Xiaomi globally. Sister company vivo remains at 8%, even though it sat at 10% in Q1 last year.

The Canalys report concludes with a hopeful message for the near future: “The good news is that the painful component shortages might improve sooner than expected, which will certainly help relieve cost pressures.”

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