According to a pair of reports from Strategy Analytics (via 9to5Mac), Apple accounted for about a quarter of all 5G smartphone shipments. At the same time, Apple’s HomePod mini saw a significant bump in sales compared to last year but failed to break Apple out of fifth place in the smart speaker market.
In Q3 2021, Strategy Analytics said Apple accounted for slightly more than a quarter of 5G smartphone shipments, putting it at the top globally. Xiaomi came second, followed by Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, Realme and others.
Considering that all of Apple’s newest iPhones for this year and last year were 5G-capable, I’m not totally surprised to see Apple at the top of this list. If you want to buy a new iPhone, your only options are 5G devices (even if you live somewhere where 5G isn’t readily available).
As for smart speakers, Strategy Analytics noted that little has changed in Q3 2021. Amazon still holds the top spot, followed by Google, Baidu, Alibaba and Apple in fifth. However, the gap between these top five companies continued to grow as they dominated the entry-level with low-priced speakers in the $50-$100 range.
Apple reportedly shipped 4 million HomePod units during the quarter, claiming 10.2 percent of the market. It’s also a massive 92 percent jump from last year, when Apple shipped 2.1 million units in the same quarter. Meanwhile, Amazon didn’t see significant growth over last year in this market, while Google and Baidu saw 18 and 15 percent growth respectively.
Strategy Analytics notes that the HomePod mini fueled Apple’s growth in this sector, but it’s not clear how many units Apple shipped. Regardless, it’s clear that the HomePod mini is somewhat popular — it remains to be seen if Apple will capitalize on this and expand its smart speaker push in the future.
Source: 9to5Mac
