Apple beat out Samsung to become the largest smartphone seller in the calendar fourth quarter of 2020, the first time this has happened since 2016.
Market data shared by Gartner shows Apple sold 80 million new iPhones in the last quarter of 2020. Those sales were largely driven by the launch of the first 5G-capable iPhones. Anshul Gupta, Senior Research Director at Gartner, says that 5G and improved camera features helped convince customers to upgrade to iPhone 12 models in the final quarter of the year.
“Even as consumers remained cautious in their spending and held off on some discretionary purchases, 5G smartphones and pro-camera features encouraged some end users to purchase new smartphones or upgrade their current smartphones in the quarter.”
Apple sold more than 10 million extra iPhones in the fourth quarter compared to 2019. The company saw its global smartphone market share increase by almost 15%. Meanwhile, Samsung saw its global smartphone market share decrease by 11.8%, selling around 8 million fewer devices compared to one year ago.
Apple’s nearly 15% sales increase amounted to an “upgrade super-cycle,” said Annette Zimmerman, the lead analyst for Apple at Gartner, quoted by the Financial Times.
Overall, global smartphone sales didn’t perform as well as Apple’s iPhone, as industry sales decreased by 12.5% in 2020. Alle and Xiaomi were the only two smartphone makers to see their sales increase.
As for 2021, Gartner expects the availability of lower-end smartphones, including the iPhone 12 mini, to be a “deciding factor for end-users to upgrade their existing smartphones.”
