Smartphone Shipments Will Grow 12% in 2022: Canalys

Following an unprecedented slowdown last year, the smartphone market is now on its way to recovery. According to the latest forecasts by enquiry firm Canalys, global smartphone shipments will grow 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) in 2021 to reach 1.four billion units.

Smartphone shipments barbarous 7 percent YoY in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The market place showed signs of recovery towards the end of the year and early this year equally the pandemic is subdued in most parts of the earth. However, the smartphone industry is now feeling the after-furnishings of it. A sudden rise in demand for electronic and networking products during the pandemic has acquired a component supply issue. There's a global shortage of semiconductor chips right now, delaying the market place release of many new devices.

But even with that bottleneck, Canalys expects smartphone shipments to grow in double-digits in 2021. This meaning growth rate is also because the smartphone market had fallen to an unexpected low last year. That's more evident when you lot look at the predicted shipment growth charge per unit for the years to come. The house suggests smartphone shipments will grow only about five percentage YoY in 2022. That growth rate could further autumn in subsequent years.

All the same, a too-low shipment volume in 2020 isn't the only gene for a 12 pct YoY growth rate this year. The world hasn't fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic however. There are still travel restrictions in place in many parts of the world. Every bit such, people accept been unable to become on holidays as much as they used to do before this global health crisis struck. Many of them are now opting to spend their disposable income on a new smartphone.

5G is another driving force

The transition from 4G to 5G is chop-chop gaining pace. Over the past few months, the 5G price bespeak has come downwards drastically cheers to the introduction of affordable 5G chipsets like Qualcomm's Snapdragon 480 and MediaTek'due south Dimensity 700. Many vendors are even fix to cede other features like display and camera to accommodate 5G at lower prices. Perhaps they are responding to the growing consumer demand for affordable 5G smartphones.

According to Canalys, 5G handsets accounted for 37 percentage of global smartphone shipments in Q1 2021. This share could grow up to 43 percent for the total year. In figures, 610 million of the total 1.four billion smartphone units expected to ship this year could be 5G-ready. Around 32 pct (195 1000000) of those will cost less than $300.

"It is time for mass adoption [of 5G]," says Canalys Research Managing director Ben Stanton. The firm expects 5G smartphone shipments to overtake 4G smartphone shipments by the end of 2022 (52 per centum vs 48 percent). The share of 5G smartphones could reach equally loftier as 69 percent in 2023.

N American smartphone market has reached a tipping indicate?

Canalys also published a region-wise breakdown of smartphone shipment forecast and growth for 2021 and 2022. An important takeaway from this data is how the North American smartphone market is expected to refuse 2 percent YoY in 2022 when global shipments are still expected to grow 5 percent.

The Asia Pacific region seemingly however has a big room for growth in smartphone shipments. It is the only market where shipments are expected to abound at a higher rate next year than this year. Here are Canalys' forecasts for region-wise smartphone shipments and growth for the next two years: