Global smartphone shipments drop 6% due to component shortages, says Canalys

The market analyst firm Canalys has recently reported that the global smartphone shipments dropped 6%, as vendors struggled to meet the demand for devices due to component shortages.

In the same report, Canalys revealed the top five vendors by market share for Q3 2021. Samsung was the leading vendor with a 23% share. Apple regained second place with a 15% share. Xiaomi took 14% share for third place, while vivo and OPPO completed the top five with 10% share each.

“The smartphone industry is striving to maximize production of devices as best it can. On the supply side, chipset manufacturers are increasing prices to disincentivize over-ordering, in an attempt to close the gap between demand and supply. But despite this, shortages will not ease until well into 2022. As a result of this, as well as high costs of global freight, smartphone brands have reluctantly pushed up device retail pricing,” said Canalys Principal Analyst, Ben Stanton.

The supply shortage is expected to continue well into 2022.

“Customers should expect smartphone discounting this year to be less aggressive. But to avoid customer disappointment, smartphone brands which are constrained on margin should look to bundle other devices, such as wearables and IoT, to create good incentives for customers,” Stanton added.