The pace of recovery for the smartphone market accelerated in Q1/21 with 25.5% year-over-year shipment growth, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, which further showed that smartphone vendors shipped nearly 346 million devices during the quarter.

The growth came from all regions, with the greatest gains coming from China and the Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China). As the two largest regions globally, accounting for half of all global shipments, these regions experienced 30% and 28% year-over-year growth, respectively.

“The recovery is proceeding faster than we expected, clearly demonstrating a healthy appetite for smartphones globally. But amidst this phenomenal growth, we must remember that we are comparing against one of the worst quarters in smartphone history: 1Q20, the start of the pandemic, when the bulk of the supply chain was at a halt and China was in full lockdown,” Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said. “However, the growth is still very real; when compared to two years ago (1Q19), shipments are 11% higher. The growth is coming from years of repressed refresh cycles with a boost from 5G. But above all, it is a clear illustration of how smartphones are becoming an increasingly important element of our everyday life — a trend that is expected to continue as we head into a post-pandemic world with many consumers carrying forward the new smartphone use cases which emerged from the pandemic.”

As the smartphone market is recovering, a major shift is happening in the competitive landscape. Huawei is finally out of the top five for the first time in many years after suffering heavy declines under the increased weight of U.S. sanctions. Taking advantage of this are the Chinese vendors Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, which all grew share over last quarter, landing them in third, fourth and fifth places globally during the quarter with 14.1%, 10.8% and 10.1% share, respectively. All three vendors are increasing their focus in international markets where Huawei had grown its share in recent years. In the low- to mid-priced segment, it is these vendors that are gaining the most from Huawei’s decline, while most of the high-end share is going to Apple and Samsung.

Samsung regained the top spot in Q1/21 with impressive shipments of 75.3 million and 21.8% share. The new S21 series did well for Samsung, mainly thanks to a successful pricing strategy shaving off $200 from last year’s flagship launch. Apple, with continued success of its iPhone 12 series, lost some share from its very strong holiday quarter but still shipped an impressive 55.2 million iPhones, grabbing 16% share.

“While Huawei continues its decline in the smartphone market, we’ve also learned that LG is exiting the market altogether,” Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said. “Most of LG’s volume was in the Americas, with North America accounting for over 50% of its volume and Latin America another 30%. Despite the vendor losing ground in recent years, they still had 9% of the North America market and 6% of Latin America. Their exit creates some immediate opportunity for other brands. With competition being more cutthroat than ever, especially at the low-end, it is safe to assume that [six to 10] brands are eyeing this share opportunity.”