The iPhone 13 series propels Apple back to the top of the smartphone market for the end of 2021

Apple's unprecedented issues with shipping may have been expected to render it more likely that the latest  iPhones would not hit #1 for the final quarter of the year in their market as they normally do. However, the 13 series have made it after all, according to the latest Canalys report on the smartphone space worldwide.

The Cupertino giant was found to have the greatest share of this market at the end of 4Q2021 with 22%. This is 1% less than last year, although this may have been par for the course following a turbulent year. The market as a whole did shrink in the final quarter of 2021, albeit only by 1%.

Canalys noted that the smartphone industry was affected by the prevailing supply-chain issues; however, it observed that smaller vendors were more likely to be affected than larger ones. Accordingly, the rest of the top 5 brands have remained in space following 4Q2020.

They are Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo in that order, although this is the first year in which OnePlus' shipments are counted together with those of OPPO. These companies had a share of the market largely unchanged compared to 4Q2020, with the exception of Samsung, which has seen a 3% year-on-year growth.

Canalys now indicates that those trends are likely to persist into the near future, as it sees component "bottlenecks" remaining in force until the second half of 2022.

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