Apple overtook Samsung to become the world’s leading smartphone brand amid record sales of iPhone smartphones. The company showed a huge jump in the last quarter of last year, while Huawei‘s position weakened greatly.
According to Counterpoint Research, shipments of iPhone smartphones increased 22% in the previous quarter. The surge is driven by the release of the iPhone 12 lineup, which supports fifth-generation networks. Also, sales of previous models did not fall, the demand for which is stable after the price decline.
The company has shipped 90 million smartphones and has more than 23% market share. Analysts note that Apple has strengthened its position in the premium segment of smartphones in China. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, two of the top three selling premium smartphones in China are from Apple.
The second place in the quarter was taken by Samsung, which received about 19% of the market. The third place went to Xiaomi, followed by Oppo and Vivo, which took the fourth and fifth places, respectively. Huawei dropped to 6th place.
If we consider the results for the year, then Samsung is in the lead, Apple is second, Huawei is third, followed by Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme. The latter was the fastest growing brand in the past year.
Counterpoint Research’s data is broadly consistent with estimates by another analyst firm, IDC, which we have already published.
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IDC: The smartphone market has returned to growth
Experts of the analytical company IDC summed up the results of the fourth quarter of 2020 and the whole year in general on the smartphone market. As stated in the corresponding report, the smartphone market returned to growth. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 were 385.9 million units, which is 4.3% more than smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2019. At the same time, for the entire 2020, smartphones were sold 5.9% less than in 2019.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple was named the market leader. It was able to increase sales in annual terms, that is, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, by 22.2% – from 73.8 to 90.1 million devices. This led to an increase in Apple’s share from 19.9% to 23.4%. The second place is occupied by Samsung, which in annual terms increased sales by 6.2%, as a result of which its share increased from 18.8% to 19.1%. The third place is taken by Xiaomi. Its share increased from 8.9% to 11.2%. The top five also include Oppo and Huawei. The share of Oppo increased from 8.3% to 8.8%. The share of Huawei decreased from 15.2% to 8.4%.
As for 2020 as a whole, Samsung remained the leader with 20.6% of the market. Apple is in second place with 15.9%. The share of Huawei, which is in third place at the end of 2020, is 14.6%. The fourth-place belongs to Xiaomi, whose share is 11.4%, the fifth – to Vivo, whose share is 8.6%. In 2019, Samsung’s share was 21.6%, Apple’s 13.9%. Huawei – 17.5%, Xiaomi – 9.2%, Vivo – 8.0%.
