On April 29, Counterpoint released a new smartphone report. In the first quarter of 2022, the global smartphone market decreased by 7% year-on-year and 12% sequentially to 328 million units. While Samsung's shipments fell 3% year-over-year, it was the only top five smartphone brands to grow sequentially.
Samsung shipped 74 million units in the first quarter of 2022, down just 3 percent year-over-year, and is one of only two top five smartphone brands close to shipments in the first quarter before the pandemic. While Samsung's flagship S22 series was launched at the end of February (a month later than last year) and priced higher than the previous S21 series, the consumer response was good, giving Samsung shipments a 7% month-on-month increase.
Apple's global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2022 were flat with 59 million units in the first quarter of 2021. That's because of the hot sales of the iPhone 13 series and the early launch of Apple's first 5G-enabled SE series, which also pushed Apple's market share to 18% from 17% in the first quarter of 2021. Its quarterly shipments fell 28% mainly due to seasonal factors.
Quarterly global smartphone OEM shipments
Xiaomi's global smartphone shipments fell 20% year-over-year to 39 million units in the first quarter of 2022, and its market share fell to 12% from 14% in the same period last year. This is due to the relatively weak performance of the Redmi 9A and 10S smartphones, and the shortage of chips has a more severe impact on Xiaomi than other vendors.
OPPO shipments decreased 19% year-over-year to 31 million units in the first quarter of 2022, down 9% sequentially. OPPO is focused on offline, with few major products launched recently, so OPPO shipments have been more severely affected during the pandemic, especially in major markets such as India, where its market share has dropped from 11% in the first quarter of 2021 to 9%.
Vivo fell 19% year-on-year and 3% sequentially, and its market share fell from 10% in the same period last year to 9% in the first quarter of 2022. Vivo, like OPPO, has faced a more serious shortage of spare parts since the end of last year.
Honor's shipments in the first quarter of 2022 increased 148% y/y to 16 million units. Despite the seasonal contraction in the global smartphone market, shipments increased by 7% sequentially. As a result, its market share rose from 4% in the previous quarter and 2% in the same period last year to 5% in the current quarter.
Realme shipped 14.5 million units in the first quarter of 2022, up 13% year-over-year. This was driven by realme's expansion in overseas markets, particularly in Europe, where shipments increased by 163% year-on-year.