The smartphone industry is getting ready for a revival from the pandemic ever so slightly. And this is evident in the latest TrendForce Q3 2020 report. Accordingly, Chinese companies like Xiaomi, OPPO have raised the stakes in Q3 2020 Smartphone production by a huge QoQ margin. And the report predicts that the trend will continue into 2021.
TrendForce has released the report on Global Smartphone production for Q3 2020 along with predictions for Q4 2020, and beyond. As per the report, global smartphone production reaches a total of 336 million in Q3. This is a 20% QoQ(Quarter over Quarter) from Q2 and the highest QoQ increase in recent years. Plus, the rise is reportedly due to easing pandemic, holiday season, high targets of companies.
As you can see below, Chinese companies like Xiaomi, OPPO are next to Samsung(23.2%) with 13.2, and 13.4% market shares respectively. However, despite the lower shares, production of Xiaomi, OPPO has grown 51%, and 64% respectively QoQ in Q3 2020. To compare, Samsung only grew about 42%. Further, both Xiaomi and OPPO will reportedly ramp up production in Q4 and reach about 47 and 46 million production units respectively.
Apple gets a meager rise of 2% QoQ for production in Q3. Thus, it sits behind the Chinese giants at 4th place with 42 million units. However, with iPhone 12 series launch it will substantially improve in Q4 2020. Despite showing a 19% decline QoQ, Huawei manages to make 42 million units in 2020. With this, it has not only managed to equate Apple in production but retain the market position in certain regions.
Regarding inventories, Huawei has already stockpiled enough chipsets by bulking the orders before the September deadline of the US came up. To recall, the USA had altered regulations and made getting a license for supplying Huawei mandatory. As a result, report says the company might enter the scarcity stage in Q1/Q2 2021 if licensing becomes an issue. In the table, Vivo manages to get only the last place with just 30 million unit production in 2020 despite a 13% QoQ rise.
Going into Q4 2020, the report predicts a production range of 351 million units with a 4% QoQ rise. Despite a YoY decline, the production will continue to revive gradually from the pandemic. But it is subject to responses from the semiconductor industry and geopolitical scenarios. To sum up, Global smartphone production will sit somewhere around 1.25 billion units for 2020. However, it could increase to 1.36 billion units in 2021 with 5G continuing to be the center of attraction.
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