The global smartphone production is expected to reach 342 million units in the first quarter of this year, which marks a 25 percent rise year on year but a slight decline of 6 percent quarter on quarter.
According to a TrendForce report, the report arrives amid high sales of the iPhone 12 series in the last quarter, which also had Huawei drastically lose its market share due to US sanctions. Despite the decline, the quarter is estimated to record strong performance considering the first quarter usually sees a quarter on quarter decline of around 20 percent following the fourth and final quarter, which is usually the peak season of the year since demand falls.
The smartphone production for Q4 2020 is estimated to be around 364 million units, with Apple being expected to be the leader in terms of production volume. While the high end premium segment saw a decline in 2020, the Cupertino based giant still managed to push through “the headwinds and capture market share by introducing 5G models and adopting an aggressive pricing strategy,” as per the report. Apple produced 77.6 million units of iPhones in Q4 2020, marking an 85 percent increase quarter on quarter.
Furthermore, the company managed to retain its lead even in the first quarter of 2021, followed by Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Vivo, as per the report. Samsung is expected to see a decline of 14 percent during this period, with its smartphone shipments estimated to fall to 67 million units in Q4 2020. The primary reason for the decline was the launch of new iPhone models that dominated the holiday season. Although, we can expect the momentum to slow down for Apple following this quarter.
