The market researchers at Canalys claim that Samsung closed the gap on the iPhone in the previous quarter despite the iPhone 13 series launch. Worse for Apple, iPhone sales were basically flat in the quarter.

Note: I will report on smartphone sales in more detail when Gartner and IDC weigh in on their 2021 sales estimates.

“Apple accounted for 22 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in Q4 2021, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 13,” the Canalys report notes. “But overall shipments for the quarter grew just 1 percent, as vendors faced supply chain problems and a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Samsung took second place, with a market share of 20 percent.”

This is doubly impressive for Samsung because its most recent major product launch was back in August, when it announced expensive new foldable devices. Apple, meanwhile, announced and released several new iPhone 13 models in September. Samsung is set to announce the Galaxy S22 series in the coming weeks.

Rounding out the top five, Canalys says that Xiaomi came in third with a 12 percent marketshare, followed by OPPO/OnePlus (9 percent) and Vivo (8 percent).

Tagged with Samsung