Global smartphone sales fell 5% in Q4 2020, with Apple leading the way

According to statistics from Gartner, a leading global information technology research and advisory company, global smartphone sales to end users fell 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Smartphone sales fell 12.5% ​​in 2020.

“ Increased sales of 5G smartphones and mid-range and low-end smartphones minimized the market decline in the fourth quarter of 2020, ” said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. “Even as consumers remained cautious and held off on purchasing some discretionary items, 5G smartphones and professional-grade camera features encouraged some end users to purchase new smartphones or upgrade existing ones during the quarter.”

The launch of the 5G iPhone 12 series helped Apple achieve double-digit growth in the fourth quarter of 2020, allowing Apple to surpass Samsung and become the world's number one smartphone manufacturer (see Table 1). The last time Apple became the world's number one smartphone manufacturer was in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Table 1. Number of smartphones sold to end users by the world’s top five vendors in the fourth quarter of 2020 (in thousands)

Figures may not add up to totals due to rounding. 

Source: Gartner (February 2021)

2020 full year results

Although Samsung's year-on-year decline in 2020 was 14.6%, Samsung is still the world's number one smartphone manufacturer in terms of full-year performance. As regional smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo have become more active in the global market, the competition between Samsung and these manufacturers has become more intense. Apple and Xiaomi are the only two manufacturers among the top five smartphone manufacturers to achieve growth in 2020.

Huawei suffered the biggest drop among the top five smartphone manufacturers in 2020, and had to give up the second place to Apple (see Table 2). The ban on Huawei smartphones using Google apps had an adverse impact on Huawei's performance and sales in 2020.

Table 2. Number of smartphones sold to end users by the world’s top five manufacturers in 2020 (unit: thousand units)

Data may not match totals due to rounding Source: Gartner (February 2021)

“Looking ahead to 2021, the availability and innovative features of low-end 5G smartphones will be the deciding factors for end users to upgrade their existing smartphones,” said Mr. Gupta. “Demand for affordable 5G smartphones is rising outside of China, which will drive smartphone sales growth in 2021.”