Despite Covid-19 wreaking havoc across the supply chain, the 5G global smartphone market still managed to record growth. 5G smartphone shipments rose 6.5% QoQ in emerging markets in Q2 2021, though the total shipments in these regions dropped 5% in the same period, according to the latest data from Counterpoint Market Monitor Service.
The global 5G smartphone market has been segmented on the basis of sales channel, named as offline and online. The offline segment is the fastest growing market, owing to growing availability of a huge number and variety of outlets including retailer outlets, hypermarkets, mobile stores, and brand stores, expanding urbanization, growing usage of mobile devices and accelerating economic growth.
Major smartphone OEMs are now prioritizing 5G products in their portfolios, which is especially true in emerging markets. realme is aggressive in popularizing 5G devices. The OEM’s 5G share in its emerging market smartphone shipments went up from 8.8% in Q1 to 15.9% in Q2, ranking 3rd following Apple and Oneplus. The OEM’s global shipments increased 135% YoY to 15 million in Q2 2021, coming to the sixth for the first time. Globally, realme’s 5G devices took up 37.0% in shipments in Q2, increasing from 22.7% in Q1.
India’s market, which posted 75.5% QoQ growth in 5G device shipments, will likely sustain the current strong momentum through the rest of this year. Countries in Southeast Asia will also likely see a 5G shipment increase in H2 but the real difference will be made in 2022 when major countries in the region put 5G into commercial use.
Affordable 5G products may prove to be a game changer, and OEMs with popular 5G budget phones should witness a considerable jump in their market shares. This is an opportunity no OEM would like to miss.
