Strategy Analytics has released its first quarter report for global 5G smartphone shipments. Samsung and Vivo saw the highest gains in the last quarter. Samsung shipped 17 million units in Q1 2021, compared to 9.5 million shipments in the last quarter of 2020, seeing a growth of 79 percent. This is likely due to the launch of the Galaxy S21 series early in January. Even Vivo’s global 5G shipments totalled at 19.4 million, seeing a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth of 62 percent.
While Samsung and Vivo were the fastest growing 5G smartphone vendors in Q1 2021, Apple still led the pack with a total of 40.4 million shipments, Strategy Analytics reports. In comparison to the last quarter, wherein it shipped 52.2 million smartphones, Apple shipments declined by 23 percent. Just below Apple was Oppo with 21.5 million shipments in the first quarter, seeing a growth of 55 percent. Vivo and Samsung take the third and fourth position, respectively. Xiaomi comes in the fifth position with 16.6 million with 41 percent growth. Apple is the only vendor in the top five that saw a decline in growth.
Strategy Analytics says that Samsung is performing well with its new 5G models — Galaxy S21 5G, Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G and Galaxy S21+ 5G — in South Korea, North America, and parts of Europe. Vivo’s shipments were driven by iQoo U3 5G and iQoo U7 5G smartphones in China and Europe regions.
Ken Hyers, Director, Strategy Analytics, said in a statement, “Global 5G smartphone shipments grew a healthy 6 percent QoQ and hit a record 136 million units during the first quarter of 2021. Demand for 5G smartphones remains very strong, particularly in China, United States, and Western Europe. We forecast global 5G smartphone shipments to reach a record 624 million units for the full-year 2021, soaring from 269 million in full-year 2020.”