Smartphone

Smartphone production dips 10% to 310 mn despite 5G demand

June 1, 2022

Smartphone production fell 12.8 percent q-o-q and dropped 10.1 percent y-o-y to 310 million units in the first quarter of 2022, according to TrendForce.
Global smartphone production volume in 2Q22 is forecast at approximately 309 million units, which is roughly on par with 1Q22 but the lingering possibility of a subsequent downgrade this quarter cannot be ruled out.

Samsung’s smartphone production volume in 1Q22 increased to 73.8 million units, ranking first in the world. Samsung’s production performance in 2Q22 is expected to decline compared with 1Q22. Main production sites of Samsung are located in Vietnam and India.

The iPhone 13 series and SE3 helped Apple’s production volume reach 60 million units in 1Q22, with an annual growth of rate 11.1 percent, mainly due to cannibalizing Huawei’s former high-end model orders while making up for losses incurred from the suspension mobile phone sales in Russia in response to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Xiaomi (including Redmi, POCO, Black Shark), OPPO (including Realme, OnePlus), and Vivo (including iQoo), had production volume of 44.5 million, 40.5 million, and 23.5 million units, respectively.

Due to the high overlap between positioning and product planning of these three brands in the sales market, factors such as delayed delivery of 4G low-end processor chips at the beginning of the quarter and sluggish sales in the Chinese market will directly affect production performance.

OPPO and Vivo exhibited a more significant quarterly decline due to their large market share in China. At the same time, the rapid rise of Honor, coupled with its strategy of focusing on the Chinese market as its primary sales foundation, will threaten Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo.

In 2021, 5G’s global market share reached 38 percent. The growth of 5G smartphones will be driven by markets outside of China. With the steady increase in global 5G base station coverage, the market share of 5G smartphones is forecast to reach 50 percent in 2022, or approximately 661 million units.

Apple will lead the 5G smartphone market.