Apple smartphone sales overtake Samsung for the first time in 4 years

In the last quarter of 2020, Apple dethroned Samsung and is leading the market. In any case, this is reported by Gartner analysts who also place the Cupertino company in second place on the podium on their annual balance sheet.

Last year, the smartphone market saw an overall decline of 12.5%. While in 2019 1.540 billion terminals were sold, this figure fell to 1.347 billion in 2020.

Apple shines in the fourth quarter

At the end of last month, we reported the figures of the firm IDC. According to the latter, Apple would have sold 90.1 million iPhones over the last three months of 2020. For its part, Gartner announces 79.94 million sales.

Either way, this is a record. More than one in five smartphones sold during this period was an iPhone. If the company generally records a good fourth quarter boosted by its new models, it should be noted that this year, they were released a month late. Tim Cook's firm then posted an increase of 14.9% compared to the last quarter of 2019.

In second position, Samsung has for its part passed 62.117 million smartphones. These figures are down 11.8%. The Korean manufacturer is placed in front of Xiaomi, Oppo and Huawei.

Samsung retains its place over the year

While Samsung was eclipsed by Apple late last year, the company still leads overall sales. And by far. The company would thus have marketed 253 million terminals in total with a share of 18.8% of the market. Note that this represents an annual decrease of 14.6%.

For its part, Apple sold 199.84 million iPhones in 2020 against 193.47 million in 2019. Huawei would retain its place in the top 3 with a 13.5% market share and 182.6 million units sold. However, this is the most pronounced drop. The Chinese manufacturer had sold 240.6 million smartphones the previous year.

Xiaomi and Oppo are respectively in fourth and fifth place on the podium. Xiaomi is the company that records the strongest growth with growth of 15.7% and 145.8 million smartphones sold. The company had also overtaken Apple in the third quarter of 2020.

Source: Gartner