Apple beats Samsung in phone sales for the first time since 2016

Apple beat Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone seller in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a new data report from research firm Gartner. Samsung has surpassed Apple sales since the same quarter of 2016.

Gartner estimates that Apple sold 79.94 million during the quarter, while Samsung managed to sell 62.17 million. Samsung did not launch new flagship phones that quarter. Apple’s sales were boosted by the launch of the new iPhone 12 line, which generally sold better than the previous year’s iPhone updates. Apple sold 69.6 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2019.

However, that Apple victory came amid a general decline in the smartphone market. General smartphone sales fell 12.5% ​​in 2020 and 5.4% in the fourth quarter.

The lowest rate of decline in the quarter compared to the rest of the year was attributed to “sales of more 5G smartphones and lower to mid-level smartphones,” according to Gartner’s Anshul Gupta.

Samsung saw an overall decline in smartphone sales over 2020 of 14.6 percent, although the company still remained the top smartphone seller throughout the year, regardless of Apple’s fourth quarter victory. Gartner notes that Samsung is facing stiff competition in many markets from Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo – all of which have grown during the year.

At the same time, a besieged Huawei saw the biggest drop in sales of the year. Its sales fell 24.1%. Gupta said smartphone sales in 2021 will be boosted by the adoption of 5G phones outside China.

Not all iPhone 12 models sold equally, however. We reported earlier this month that the iPhone 12 mini moved considerably fewer units than the iPhone 12 or even the iPhone 12 Pro – bad news for small phone lovers. However, some analysts and publishers predict that the mini size will return to the iPhone 13 line later this year.

List image by Samuel Axon