Report: Apple takes 26% of 2021 smartphone AP revenue

Source: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore

New insight from Strategy Analytics into the smartphones applications processor market says that Apple took 26% of the revenue in the sector last year.

The report says that the market as a whole grew by some 23 percent to $30.8 billion last year, with Qualcomm, MediaTek, Apple, Samsung, and Unisoc rounding out the top five.

Qualcomm retains the lead with a 37.7% market share, despite Mediatek, which took second place with a 26.3% share, having a 75 million unit lead over the former. That was only just enough to beat Apple’s 26% share. All but Samsung in the top five increased their share from the year before.

While the report doesn’t break down which of Apple’s smartphone chips drove this increase, it is likely that the A-series chips in the iPhone 12 and newer iPhone 13 were largely responsible.

The top-selling Android chips were Snapdragon’s 888/888+, 750G and 662, and Dimensity 700 series, while Google took a paltry 0.1% share with its new Pixel Tensor chip.

5G was also a big driving factor in the growth, with 5-G capable AP shipments up 84% year-on-year, accounting for 46% of total smartphone APs shipped last year.

SA further states that TSMC, a mainstay supplier of Apple’s best iPhone chips, accounted for some 75% of all smartphone APs shipped last year.

Reports indicate Apple will unveil a new iPhone 14 later this year, but that only the ‘Pro’ variant in the lineup will get a new processor, with the regular iPhone retaining the current model.