5G Ecosystem - March
March was a good month for 5G. 5G devices growth remained above trend line and smartphone unit volume returned to 15% m/m growth for the first time since October of last year. While these are still relatively small changes, they are indicative of smartphone growth seen in China (see our note 3/18/21) recently, and we believe, a bit of optimism that the aggressive vaccine program in the US will allow a return to normalcy sometime in the near-future.
Aside from the global statistics, we looked at the 50 most popular smartphones released in 2021 to see how many were 5G enabled, and while this is not a strictly scientific study, it showed that 29 of the 50 (58%) were 5G enabled, while the remaining 21 (42%) were not. Typically March is a strong month for Chinese smartphone shipments, averaging over 100% m/m growth over the past 5 years (76.9% if you take out last year’s 240.3% m/m growth during the pandemic), so it is not surprising that 5G smartphone growth was also strong, however we do not yet have March China smartphone shipment data so we cannot tell whether 5G shipments remained between 65% and 70% of the Chinese smartphone market. If that rate increased, we can surmise that there has been a pickup in Chinese 5G smartphone shipment growth, which is our supposition. If Chinese 5G smartphone shipments did not increase as a percentage, then we would surmise that the growth was outside of China, a more desirable outcome. That data should become available within the next few days.
Aside from the global statistics, we looked at the 50 most popular smartphones released in 2021 to see how many were 5G enabled, and while this is not a strictly scientific study, it showed that 29 of the 50 (58%) were 5G enabled, while the remaining 21 (42%) were not. Typically March is a strong month for Chinese smartphone shipments, averaging over 100% m/m growth over the past 5 years (76.9% if you take out last year’s 240.3% m/m growth during the pandemic), so it is not surprising that 5G smartphone growth was also strong, however we do not yet have March China smartphone shipment data so we cannot tell whether 5G shipments remained between 65% and 70% of the Chinese smartphone market. If that rate increased, we can surmise that there has been a pickup in Chinese 5G smartphone shipment growth, which is our supposition. If Chinese 5G smartphone shipments did not increase as a percentage, then we would surmise that the growth was outside of China, a more desirable outcome. That data should become available within the next few days.
5G Ecosystem - Primary Indicators - Source: SCMR LLC, GSAcom.com
Selected 5G Devices - Device Offerings - Source: SCMR LLC, GSMA
5G Smartphone Unit Volume & ROC - Source: SCMR LLC, GSAcom.com
China 5G Smartphone Shipments & Share - Source: SCMR LLC, CAIST
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