The world of Android is growing ever smaller by the day — especially in North America, where only a few manufacturers remain to battle against Apple. Although last year's smartphone sales represented a rebound over a disappointing 2020, it seems like the first quarter of 2022 has started this year on the wrong foot, with bad news for nearly every smartphone manufacturer — except one.

Samsung comes out of this latest battle largely unscathed, on top of smartphone sales overall, according to Canalys. Although worldwide smartphone shipments are down 11% year over year overall, Samsung led the quarter in shipments with 24 percent of the market, up from 18 percent last quarter and 22 percent in Q1 2021.

It seems like that puts the S22 series on a stronger start than the S21 a year ago, likely boosted by the return — in all but name — of the Galaxy Note. They're some of the best smartphones you can buy today, likely impressing users enough to push for an upgrade.

As usual, Apple finished in second place with 18% market share, up from 15% last year. The iPhone 13 series has largely proven to be a hit for the company, even in a generation focused on refinements over redesign. Xiaomi came in third place, with Oppo/OnePlus and Vivo rounding out the top five. It's a similar brand lineup to what we saw throughout 2021, showing market forces are holding firm in a post-LG world. All other manufacturers — including Huawei, Google, and Motorola — made up for 27% of shipments.

It's unclear if these sales numbers will improve over the next few months, though at the very least, we'll see some exciting gadgets hit store shelves. The Galaxy Z-series should get some new foldable entries later this summer, and while Google's in-house smartphones aren't represented in the top five here — and don't seem to be selling particularly well in US carrier stores — the Pixel 6a and Pixel 7 seem like exciting revisions on last year's hardware.