For the first time since 2016, Apple climbed to the first place in the ranking of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world by number of devices sold in the fourth quarter of the year. This follows from the data of the research company Gartner, writes Forbes.
How sales have changed
Apple has sold nearly 80 million smartphones in the last three months of 2020, Gartner claims.
Apple’s market share for the quarter was 20.8%.
The increase in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2019 was 14.9%. Apple helped launch the iPhone with 5G: Millions of customers who waited for the technology in the iPhone finally decided to upgrade their old devices, Annette Zimmerman, lead analyst at Gartner for Apple, told the Financial Times.
According to Zimmerman, the positive trend for Apple will continue in the first quarter of 2021, which was the new year in China, and in the following months as the economy recovers.
Samsung lost the leadership and dropped to the second place. The company was able to sell almost 12% fewer smartphones in the fourth quarter compared to the end of 2019.
Samsung sold 62 million units, accounting for 16.2% of the market, followed by Chinese Xiaomi and Oppo respectively, which compete with Samsung in the mid-range. Xiaomi added 33.9% of sales over the year, Oppo – 12.9%.
Huawei fell to fifth place. Its sales, according to Gartner’s calculations, for the quarter decreased by 41% compared to the end of 2019.
The company came under US sanctions, which is why it lost access to Google services. Huawei began to develop its app store, but it is losing market share.
For the first time since 2013, the Chinese company was outside the top four leading smartphone manufacturers in one quarter: eight years ago, in addition to Apple and Samsung, it was ahead of BlackBerry and Sony, FT recalled.
IPhone sales softened the overall decline in smartphone sales, dropping 5.4% in the fourth quarter to 385 million devices. For the whole of 2020 – a 12.5% reduction to 1.35 billion devices.
At the end of the year, Samsung is in the lead (a drop of 14.6% compared to 2019), Apple is in second place (an increase of 3.3%), and Huawei is in third (a drop by almost a quarter). In 2019, Huawei was second, and Apple rounded out the top three.
Also Read:
