Fun With Data – Samsung Smartphone Shipments
2021 was a difficult year for smartphone brands, facing relatively weak demand and supply chain and production problems. Samsung had set a goal of shipping 300m smartphone units in 2021, an ambitious goal considering how things looked in early 2021, but Samsung held steadfast to its original goal. That said in terms of actual shipments, they likely fell a bit short of that goal, given the ~45 day average time it takes for produced product to reach distributors or consumers, but they did at least meet that goal in terms of production, with the company itself producing 238.9m units and OEM/ODMs producing another 60m+, totaling just over 300m produced.
The chip shortage caused production bottlenecks, but more troubling were COVID-19 outbreaks that limited or halted device production, particularly for Samsung’s OEMs, whose assembly plants in India and Vietnam saw periodic work stoppages and production limitations. Sporadic travel limitations in China also affected OEM smartphone production, but China was not a place where Samsung’s influence was felt, even with the ebb of former market leader Huawei’s (pvt) smartphone business, with the company selling fewer units than almost any of China’s top smartphone brands.
That said, Samsung was still the top global brand, at least through 3Q, even with the challenges, and relatively weak flagship (Galaxy S21 Series) sales of ~24m to 27m units, the second year where that series underperformed compared to earlier years (35m to 40m). By focusing on mid-tier lines, the company was able to offset the S series shortfall and bring in production numbers above goal. With the confidence of being able to meet those (production) goals in such a difficult year, Samsung is expecting to produce 285m units in 2022 internally, and an additional 48m to 50m from OEMs, an increase of roughly 10%. As with most CE companies enthusiasm is quite abundant, regardless of the circumstances, especially early in the year, so who are we to rain on their parade this early in the year…
The chip shortage caused production bottlenecks, but more troubling were COVID-19 outbreaks that limited or halted device production, particularly for Samsung’s OEMs, whose assembly plants in India and Vietnam saw periodic work stoppages and production limitations. Sporadic travel limitations in China also affected OEM smartphone production, but China was not a place where Samsung’s influence was felt, even with the ebb of former market leader Huawei’s (pvt) smartphone business, with the company selling fewer units than almost any of China’s top smartphone brands.
That said, Samsung was still the top global brand, at least through 3Q, even with the challenges, and relatively weak flagship (Galaxy S21 Series) sales of ~24m to 27m units, the second year where that series underperformed compared to earlier years (35m to 40m). By focusing on mid-tier lines, the company was able to offset the S series shortfall and bring in production numbers above goal. With the confidence of being able to meet those (production) goals in such a difficult year, Samsung is expecting to produce 285m units in 2022 internally, and an additional 48m to 50m from OEMs, an increase of roughly 10%. As with most CE companies enthusiasm is quite abundant, regardless of the circumstances, especially early in the year, so who are we to rain on their parade this early in the year…
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