Xiaomi Takes No. 2 Spot in Global Smartphone Shipments, Ousts Apple: IDC

Samsung continued to reign supreme in worldwide smartphone shipments for Q2 2021, but Xiaomi gained the most, according to the last report by International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Xiaomi moved into the second position for the first time, nudging Apple to third place in Q2 2021. Huawei's decline in shipments and LG's exit from the smartphone business, caused a slight shift in market positions this quarter. Overall shipment volumes grew 13.2 percent year over year, slightly beating IDC's forecast of 12.5 percent growth. Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 313.2 million devices during the quarter.

IDC reports that Samsung shipped 59 million units in Q2 2021 gaining a market share of 18.8 percent becoming the top vendor. The South Korean giant shipped 54 million units last year in the same quarter. Xiaomi, on the other hand, saw a significant YoY increase in shipments with 53.1 million units shipped in Q2 2021 raking in 16.9 percent of the market share. This is a huge increase from 28.5 million units shipped in the same quarter last year taking 10.3 percent of the market share. The company has seen an 86.6 percent YoY increase in shipments.

Apple moved to the third position, IDC reports, with 44.2 million shipments and 14.1 percent market share. In the same quarter last year, Apple shipped 37.6 million units and enjoyed 13.6 percent market share. Oppo and Vivo took the third and fourth position in IDC's list with 32.8 million and 31.6 million shipments, respectively. Both the smartphone vendors raked in 10.5 percent and 10.1 percent market share each.

In the markets where Huawei and LG are strongest (China and US), companies face different chances of gaining market share. In the US, IDC reports that Motorola, TCL, and OnePlus experienced year-over-year gains beyond what they have seen in recent years due to LG's departure. In China, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Apple continued to gain from Huawei's rapid decline.

IDC reports that Chinese brand Realme saw the fastest year-over-year growth among the top 10 at 149 percent and more than three quarters of its volume coming from outside China.