#smartphone share

Even though worldwide smartphone shipments declined year over year in the fourth quarter of 2021, Samsung still reigns as the top smartphone brand in 2021 in terms of market share. Samsung which boasts a 20.1% market share led the way with a 6% growth year-over-year, followed by Apple and Xiaomi, in second and third respectively. Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 362.4 million phones during the fourth quarter of 2021, which was down 3.2% year over year but better than IDC’s forecast. On an annual basis though, the market grew 5.7% in 2021 with 1.35 billion smartphones shipped. "As we mentioned last quarter, the supply chain and component shortages started to have meaningful impact on the smartphone market as we entered the second half of the year, and this continues to be the case as we've now entered 2022. Xiaomi had the highest annual growth reaching almost 30%, Samsung had the lowest, just 6.0% growth in 2021 but still, again, number one in smartphone shipment share. Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi now ranks third in worldwide smartphone market share, according to the Q3 2014 report by research and analytical company International Data Corporation (IDC). According to the same data, world smartphone sales have increased 25% from the previous year, which can be attributed to new smartphone releases and an increase in emphasis on emerging markets. Read more in our articles including "IDC: Samsung top smartphone brand in 2021 market share" and "Xiaomi now world's third biggest handset maker".