Apple iPhone Production Reached Record High of 85.5 Million Units in 4Q21 [Report]

Apple's production of iPhones reached a record high of 85.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a new report from TrendForce. New iPhones were the primary growth driver for the quarter while shipments of some brands were constrained by component shortages. Total smartphone production for 4Q21 was slightly down from 4Q20 and 4Q19.

After unveiling the iPhone 13 series in September, Apple started aggressively ramping up the shipments of these new devices to meet market demand. Owing to its fast-paced sales and marketing rhythms, Apple has been able to take first place in the quarterly ranking of smartphone brands by production market share for many fourth quarters, and 4Q21 was no exception. Besides maintaining its top position in the fourth-quarter brand ranking, Apple raised its quarterly iPhone production to a new record high of 85.5 million units, a 66.0% QoQ increase.

In the aspect of pricing strategy, the prices of the new iPhone 13 models were reasonable for consumers, while the price reductions for the older iPhone models were noticeable as well. Moreover, the capturing of the market share left by Huawei can be considered as the main factor behind Apple’s stellar performance in 4Q21. Over time, the orders for Huawei’s flagship models (i.e., the P and Mate series) have been gradually replaced by iPhone orders.


In terms of annual production, Apple reached 233 million units for 2021, up from almost 200 million units for 2020. The growth was mainly attributed to an expansion of Apple’s market share in China from 10% to 16%. Samsung took second place in the global brand ranking for 4Q21 with 71 million units, a 2.9% QoQ increase. In 2Q21, the spread of COVID-19 outbreaks in Vietnam affected smartphone production facilities in the country and lowered Samsung’s capacity utilization rate. But apart from that quarter, Samsung’s performance remained stable for the other three quarters of last year. For the ranking of smartphone brands by annual production, Samsung was still the leader for 2021 with 275 million units.

TrendForce expects annual smartphone production for 2022 to have a slight year over year increase of 3.6% to 1.381 billion units. Smartphone demand is expected to decline in China and other markets could see limited growth. A wide range of factors could affect the smartphone market this year including foundry capacity allocation, global inflation, energy shortages, and more. Additionally, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has resulted in exchange rate, inflation, and logistics problems in Eastern Europe. TrendForce says that the top three brands of Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple sold a combined 45 million units in Russia and Ukraine last year. Despite the ongoing conflict, TrendForce does not expect a drastic effect on smartphone production though global economic problems could affect demand.

More details in the full report linked below...

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