Smartphone production will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022

TrendForce has released a fresh forecast for the global smartphone market for next year. Analysts believe that smartphone sales will return to levels seen before the pandemic.

There are expectations that in 2022 the volume of production of smartphones will reach 1.39 billion units. If this forecast is justified, then the growth in relation to the current year will be at the level of 3.8%.

Smartphones are essential to people’s daily lives and constitute a basic necessity. TrendForce therefore expects the smartphone industry to rebound and post marginal growth next year, assuming that economic activities worldwide will mostly return to normal by then. The main trend drivers in the smartphone market next year are still going to be the usual device replacement cycle and the additional demand from emerging markets. TrendForce expects annual smartphone production for 2022 to reach about 1.39 billion units and the YoY growth rate hitting 3.8%.

Smartphone production will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022

South Korean giant Samsung will remain the global market leader with 276 million smartphones released. The share of the company will be approximately 20%, and the growth in annual terms is 1.1%.

Apple will be in second place next year. According to reports, the company will be able to ship 243 million smartphones; and its share will be about 18%. Year-on-year growth is will be at 5.4%.

Next, there will be three Chinese manufacturers. These are Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, whose shares will be 16%, 15% and 11%, respectively. The first of the three named companies is expected to sell 220 million smartphones; the second – 208 million units, the third – 149 million units.

Given that demand will unlikely increase by a significant margin in the domestic Chinese smartphone market next year, the three major Chinese brands, including OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo, will primarily depend on overseas sales for their smartphone market share growths. It should be pointed out that TrendForce’s calculation of Xiaomi’s production volume also includes handsets released by the brand’s subsidiaries Mi, Redmi, POCO, and Black Shark. Thanks to Xiaomi’s relatively early expansion in the overseas markets, as the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually brought under control, Xiaomi is expected to benefit the growth of its overseas sales and register a smartphone production of 220 million units, representing a 15.8% YoY growth and the third highest volume among all brands.

Also, TrendForce predicts that 5G smartphones will reach 660 million units in 2022. Thus, the share of such devices in the total supply will amount to 47.5%.