Text/Yang Jianyong
Due to strong consumer demand for the Phone13, Apple regained the top spot in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2021, accounting for 22% of the global market share, and the last time it ranked first in the world was in the fourth quarter of 2020. This data comes from Canalys, an authoritative research institution. Samsung, which has long been ranked first in the world, did not perform as well as Apple in the quarter, but ranked second in the world with 20% of the market. It is followed by xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo, the three major domestic mobile phone manufacturers.
Not long ago, Lei Jun said that he officially benchmarked Apple and learned from Apple, saying that mobile phone sales have been the first in the world in three years. Unfortunately, in the third quarter of 2021, the performance of Xiaomi mobile phones was sluggish. Previously, canalys reported that in the quarter, Xiaomi smartphone shipments fell by 7%, ranking third in the industry with a market share of 14%. According to Xiaomi's financial report, in the third quarter of 2021, revenue from the smartphone sector was 47.8 billion yuan, a slight increase of 0.4% year-on-year. For comparison, Apple's revenue from iPhones increased 47% year-over-year to $38.87 billion (approximately RMB246.6 billion) in the quarter (fiscal year ended September 25, 2021).
The net profit of the two is even more different. In the third quarter of 2021, Xiaomi's profit for the period was RMB789 million, down 83.8% year-on-year, and its adjusted net profit was RMB5.176 billion, an increase of 25.4% year-on-year. Apple's net profit was 165 times larger than Xiaomi's profit during the period. In the quarter, Apple's net profit was $20.55 billion (about 130 billion yuan), up 62% from the same period last year. Overall, the decline in mobile phone share and the lack of performance growth are Xiaomi's current predicament.
Combined with Apple's financial report, the lack of Huawei, a heavyweight competitor, the iPhone has become the world's most popular smartphone, and it has also shown rapid growth in the domestic market. In fiscal 2021, Apple's revenue from the Greater China region was $68.366 billion, an increase of 70% year-on-year, making it the fastest growing regional market in the global market. At the same time, iPhone revenue was $191.973 billion, up 39% year-on-year. In the case of the decline of global smartphones, Apple still maintains a high growth trend, which can be seen that the iPhone is favored by consumers around the world. At the same time, the iPhone brings a steady stream of profits to Apple.
Image from Apple's official website
In fiscal 2021, Apple made $94.7 billion (more than 600 billion yuan) and its net profit increased by 65% year-on-year. Not only is it the world's most profitable listed company, this net profit scale is comparable to Huawei's annual revenue, and in 2021, Huawei's revenue is expected to be 634 billion yuan. Among the major mobile phone manufacturers, for Huawei, 2021 is an extremely difficult year. In the past, apples were pressed in the global mobile phone market, and it was regrettable that mobile phones were restricted, which led to a sharp decline in revenue. Compared with 891.4 billion yuan in 2020, the revenue in 2021 decreased by 257.4 billion yuan, down 29% year-on-year.
However, in the view of Guo Ping, Huawei's rotating chairman, it has withstood a severe test, and the overall operating situation is in line with expectations. Chip restrictions have led to a sharp contraction in smartphones, which in turn has dragged down overall revenue. It is worth mentioning that in the highlight moment of Huawei's smartphones, various comparisons and various topics between the two and Apple continue to exist, especially smartphone shipments once led Apple. Nowadays, after the development of mobile phones is blocked, Apple is the biggest beneficiary, and without Huawei, the competitor, Apple's life is quite moist.
Not only the iPhone, but also other hardware products are in high demand. In fiscal 2021, Apple's hardware product revenue reached $297.392 billion, an increase of $76.6 billion compared with fiscal year 2020, an increase of 34.72% year-on-year. Consumer demand for Apple's hardware products is strong, driving Apple's revenue and profits to new highs, so that Apple has made a lot of money, making a net profit of 1 billion yuan per day, the real sense of the daily gold. It should be pointed out that the strong demand for iPhone, the record high revenue, the largest profit in the industry and many other factors have also been favored by investors in the capital market, and it is the first company in the world to break through the $3 trillion mark.
Finally, for more than a decade, Apple has led the development of global smartphones, as well as consumer technology products such as wearables, which are undoubtedly the vane of the global consumer technology market. In addition, at a time when the metaverse is in full swing, as the world's largest consumer technology company, Apple will also be expected to be one of the biggest winners of AR/VR virtual reality devices. Behind this lies investment in technological innovation, with Apple investing more than 15 billion euros in research and development over the past year. This R&D investment scale ranks fifth in the world, ranking first in Google, Huawei, Microsoft, and Samsung.
Yang Jianyong, a Forbes China contributor, expresses views only on behalf of individuals. He won the NetEase 2020 Most Influential Award, dedicated to the in-depth interpretation of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud services and artificial intelligence, and his views and research strategies have been cited by many authoritative media and well-known enterprises.