Apple took top spot in the global smartphone market during the last quarter of 2020, for the first time since the same period in 2016, according to figures from research firm Gartner. Its estimates show that Apple shipped 79.94m devices in the quarter, equating to 20.8% market share, overtaking Samsung on 16.2%.
Huawei, pressurized by international sanctions and restrictions on component supply, dropped to fifth position with 8.9%, a sharp comedown from the earlier part of 2020, when it had seemed poised to seize a global lead. Fellow Chinese suppliers Xiaomi and Oppo were ranked third and fourth respectively.
Gartner said the launch of the 5G iPhone 12 series was the key driver behind Apple’s double-digit growth in the quarter.
Another report, from Counterpoint Research, came to similar conclusions, although it put Huawei in sixth place, slightly behind Chinese rival Vivo, which recorded an 8% market share.
Overall smartphone sales fell by 5.4% in Q4 2020 and 12.5% in the full year, according to Gartner; but figures from rival market research firm IDC said that Q4 smartphone sales actually grew by 4.3% year-on-year, and the full year decline was 5.9%.
Both analyst firms estimated similar sales of around 385m for Q4, but Gartner’s figure for the year-ago quarter was higher at 406.6m, compared to IDC’s 369.9m. Counterpoint’s figures were 401.1m in Q4 2019 and 395.9m in Q4 2020.
For 2020 as a whole, Gartner estimates sales of 1.34bn, IDC says 1.29bn and Counterpoint’s tally is 1.33bn.
For the full year, Samsung still came out on top, according to Gartner, IDC and Counterpoint, while Apple was second and Huawei third. Apple and Xiaomi were the only vendors in the top five to enjoy growth in 2020.
“The impact of the ban on use of Google applications on Huawei’s smartphones was detrimental to Huawei’s performance in the year and negatively affected sales,” Gartner said.
For 2021, Gartner is predicting an 11.4% rise in smartphone sales to 1.5bn units, driven by 5G and the release of some pent-up demand following Covid-led slowdown in 2020. 5G devices are expected to account for 35% of total smartphone sales this year.