During the second quarter of the year, Xiaomi was all over the headlines for overtaking Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor. The Beijing-based company even forced a division review extension in Samsung after claiming the top spot in June.
Three months later, it appears momentum is slowly fading as Apple retakes its second spot. With an overall market share of 15%, the company shipped off a total of 49.2 million smartphones in Q3 2021.
Canalys reported that the strong demand for its iPhone 13 series, and sustained iPhone 12 generation momentum propelled the Cupertino-based tech giant back to its original position.
Overall, a total of 326 million units were sold during the third quarter, with Samsung outpacing all brands at a 21% market share and shipping 69.2 million units.
Xiaomi rounds out the top three with 44 million units, followed by OPPO and Vivo both posting 36.7 million and 34.2 million units respectively. It’s worth noting that global chipset shortages caused smartphone shipments to fall 6% compared to Q3 2020.
Analysts believe smartphone brands will now adopt optimized supply chains and reorganized pricing strategies to maintain, or even improve their respective positions over the final three months of the year.
Next; Pulling the plug on E-waste; EU commission suggests removing chargers from all smartphone boxes
Alfred Gitonga is a passionate tech news writer with a deep interest in smartphones and related technologies. He is a staff writer at Mobitrends.co.ke.
