It seems that the smartphone industry is starting to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as IDC revealed in its 2021 report that the market experienced a 5.7% increase in shipments for 2021 despite a 3.2% decline in Q4 2021. In the IDC report, Xiaomi emerged as the company with the biggest year-on-year change at 29.3%.

“The supply chain and component shortages started to have a meaningful impact on the smartphone market as we entered the second half of the year, and this continues to be the case as we’ve now entered 2022. We expect to see supply and logistical challenges continue through the first half of this year, but we currently believe we’ll return to growth in the second quarter and second half of 2022,” IDC Vice President Ryan Reith said in their report.

Looking through the numbers, Xiaomi maintained its third spot behind Apple and Samsung but garnered the biggest YoY change in the IDC 2021 report with an almost 30% growth. IDC explained that this shows how Huawei’s massive decline in the smartphone industry in 2021 greatly benefitted Xiaomi. OPPO also netted a YoY growth of 20.1%, and is in fourth place.

Xiaomi’s generally good 2021 is also evident with IDC’s Q4 report, as Xiaomi managed YoY growth of 3.9% when compared to 4Q 2020. Only Samsung beat Xiaomi’s YoY growth from 4Q 2020 to 4Q 2021, as the last quarter of 2021 as Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3.

Xiaomi’s good 2021 is evident with phone releases like the 11T series, Redmi Note 10 series, and the Mi 11.