With the pandemic and everything, Apple sold more phones in the last quarter of 2020 than any other manufacturer. Market research firm Gartner estimates that the company shipped approximately 80 million iPhones in the previous quarter. This performance, one of Apple’s best to date, helped to overtake Samsung for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2016. Samsung still ended the year with the highest number of phone sales from any manufacturer, but saw an annual decline 14.6 percent after a quarter in which sales fell 11.8% over the previous year. Compare that to Apple, which saw its shipments rise 14.9% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and sales grow 3.3% a year.
Gartner suggests that the launch of the iPhone 12 helped Apple significantly, but probably as vital to its success were all the expensive failures that Samsung launched in 2020. The company did itself no favors with the Galaxy S20 and Note 20 , both of which are safe to say were overpriced when they were launched. With the Galaxy S21 more affordable to offer consumers, Samsung is in a much better position for 2021.
Despite all of Samsung’s problems in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the rest of the year, it hasn’t had as bad a time as Huawei. The sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have affected the company. It saw its shipments drop steep 41.1% during the quarter and sales drop 24.1% in the year.
Going back to Apple for a moment, it’s not just that iPhone doing work for the company. Thanks to the pandemic and associated home stay requests, the Mac is also on the rise. According to a recent report by Canalys, Apple’s shipment volume grew 45% in 2020 and 16.6% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2020.