Global smartphone shipments rose almost 7 per cent in Q2 2021, figures from research company Omdia showed, as Chinese vendor Xiaomi continued its recent momentum while Huawei suffered.

Preliminary shipment figures from the company found the global smartphone market grew 6.9 per cent year-on-year to 299.1 million units in Q2 2021, compared with 279.7 million in Q2 2020.

Samsung led the pack with 57.3 million, up 5.6 per cent. Omdia said the South Korean giant’s “mild growth” in shipments was largely attributed to a supply constraints for key components and reduced operations at production facilities, particularly in India and Vietnam which were hard hit by Covid-19 (coronavirus) problems.

Xiaomi once again stood out, reaching second place in the rankings, shipping 49.9 million units, up 72.9 per cent. Omdia found the company actually experienced a decrease in production, again due to pandemic effects in India, but the decrease “was relatively small” compared to Samsung. This was offset by increased sales outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

End of an era
Xiaomi’s success is in sharp contrast to rival Huawei. Omdia claimed “the era of Huawei as a key smartphone influencer has come to an end”, as it recorded a 74.6 per cent drop in shipments to 9.8 million, placing it in eighth in the rankings.

Apple, meanwhile, ranked third after shipments increased 7.5 per cent to 42.9 million due to a recovery in developed markets and an increase in demand for premium smartphones.

Oppo, Vivo, Realme and Motorola made up the rest of the top eight.