Smartphone makers sold 1.32 billion handsets in 2020, a decline of 9.6 percent when compared to the 1.46 billion units sold in 2019. But sales rebounded a bit in the fourth quarter, thanks largely to strong iPhone 12 sales, with the market growing about 2 percent overall.
“The sales of more 5G smartphones and lower-to-mid-tier smartphones minimized the market decline in the fourth quarter of 2020,” Gartner’s Anshul Gupta says. “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.”
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“The majority of the world is either in some form of lockdown or still waiting to return to normal day-to-day life, yet smartphone sales are rebounding as though nothing ever happened,” IDC’s Ryan Reith says. “This illustrates the importance of smartphones in everyone’s life and provides a strong foundation for market demand. As the world progresses towards a post-pandemic environment, IDC believes demand will grow and the market recovery will accelerate.”
For the full year, Samsung was again the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, with approximately 260 million units sold, good for almost 18 percent marketshare. But Samsung saw sales plummet by 12 percent in 2020: It had sold 296 million units the previous year.
By comparison, Apple finished strong in the fourth quarter of 2020, and was, in fact, the biggest smartphone maker in that quarter. In the fourth quarter, Apple sold 85 million iPhones, achieving an incredible 22 percent marketshare with 385.25 handsets sold by all hardware makers overall. For the full year, Apple sold 203 million iPhones, for about 14 percent marketshare, and representing growth of 5.4 percent year-over-year (YOY).
Huawei, as expected, fell hard in 2020 and dropped to second place behind Apple for the first time in two years. Huawei sold 186 million handsets in 2020, down 12.8 percent from the 240.6 million units it sold in 2019.
Xiaomi came in fourth place with about 146.5 million units sold, and two other Chinese firms, vivo and OPPO, were tied for fifth place.
As always, this data is averaged between Gartner and IDC estimates.
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614647">In reply to Saarek:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes money is a good reason, but there are other reasons. The Android hardware market is a giant mess with very loose standards.</p><p><br></p><p>My company has an app for our customers and its on iOS and Android. We get 100x more complaints about the Android app turned into us. It's a combination of reasons but it boils down to very loose hardware/software standards that Google puts out there. </p><p><br></p><p>A simple example is the screen UI elements not fitting properly, because there are way too many screen resolutions from different Android vendors and you run into this kind of issue all the time. Its a Wild West junk-fest of hardware out there for Android.</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614694">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>I see what I see in those bug reports. Same 3rd party vendor (big name) makes both of the apps. Our Android app has more issues with users. Maybe that is because there are more Android users?</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614723">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Using your logic, then let's open up Xbox and let all Xbox users get games and services from anywhere on the internet, skipping Microsoft's fees and opening the Xbox up to hacking, same for Sony and the PS products??</p><p><br></p><p>How is Neflix so successful when they offer a free app and I would imagine a lot of Netflix consumption happens on Apple devices (all of it at my house)? Netflix gave the finger to Apple, and as a Netflix user I must go outside the App to sign up for a subscription?</p><p><br></p><p>I believe in free market. If you don't like the price the Ulysses subscription model then don't use the product…I think it's a rip off for that product, but I am not a writer. I think even Office 365 for personal/home is not a bad price and offers many great value, but I simply do not get the value out of it and have since canceled my subscription. Maybe that is because I have it through work and when I retire some day, I will have no need for Office or OneDrive. I have a GamePass Ultimate sub, I think its a fantastic deal and I will be on board with that service for a long time. </p><p><br></p><p>I have choices and I choose where my money goes. You do too, and I bet our choices do not align. Having the government force companies that are not doing anything illegal to change their business practices is just wrong.</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614821">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>I 100% support laws and regulations. </p><p><br></p><p>I do not support breaking up a company or forcing it alter its business practices (provided they have broken no law) because they are successful and those that don't like are simply whining. </p><p><br></p><p>It's a game of jealous billionaires wanting to be in the trillionairs club and to get there they want the government to take down the successful company blocking them.</p><p><br></p><p>This analogy…..</p><p><br></p><p>"What is the problem of a black person not being able to go to a specific restaurant, just go to the other. There are plenty of choices right?"</p><p><br></p><p>is wrong in so many ways. Nice attempt to take this down some woke path FFS. You failed, miserably. We are talking electronic devices and the respective app stores that support them. </p><p><br></p><p>You have choices and you are free to exercise them. I have had lots of smartphones, from Blackberries, windows mobile, Windows Phone 7, Android and iOS phones. All my choice. No one forced me to choose any of them. I knew the pro's and con's of all of them.</p><p><br></p><p>Next time I buy a new car, say another Ford 150, should I demand that it comes with a Chevy Radio? Maybe get my lawyer to make those demands? Class action lawsuit maybe? Yes force Ford to offer other choices???</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614614">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Your post is visualized by a dog chasing its own tail. </p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614586">In reply to scovious:</a></em></blockquote><p>Clearly looking at the numbers provided in this blog post, Android is successful. Combining total sales of all Android handsets, and framing the discussion correctly (iOS vs Android, not Apple vs Samsung or whatever vendor) we can see that Android handsets dominate the market.</p><p><br></p><p>No one forces anyone to buy either type of device. You have the free will to choose and if you do not like the way one company does its business then take your business somewhere else. </p><p><br></p><p>Apple is culpable of making a product that many want and they have been successful doing so. I and many others want to get our apps ONLY in the App Store that is controlled by Apple for many reasons.</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614697">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>That is the craziest logic I have read so far. Are you being sarcastic?</p><p><br></p><p>"For anti-trust reasons, I'd personally force apple to make imessage and facetime cross-platform (probably ad-supported on non-Apple platforms). That way, they'd sink or swim on their own merits, not by tying people's hands."</p><p><br></p><p>Hello cancel culture!!!! </p><p><br></p><p>Apple has swam….on their own merits more than any other company. Remember when Steve Ballmer mocked the iPhone, or how much fun was made of the first iPad, aka the Maxi Pad. I owned a Windows Mobile phone when the first iPhone came out. Its rotting in a land fill right now, along with the rest of them. They sank.</p><p><br></p><p>Apple products are a choice. No ONE is forcing anyone to buy them. There are LOTS of high end Android devices, Samsung makes a bunch of them. </p><p><br></p><p>I do not buy anything because it's popular. I buy Apple products for many reasons. They are an American company and I want to support American companies, they value privacy a 1000x more than Google ever will, they have the best ecosystem hands down. They are a consumer focused company. They have great "family" options for sharing content. My son in the Marines, 1500 miles away has an Apple TV in his dorm room and can share our "family" content. Yes I do love the iMessage feature that works between devices. Sitting on my Mac at work using iMessage on my Mac and seamlessly moving to my iPhone is a super fantastic feature that no other company has seemed to master as well as Apple has.</p><p><br></p><p>I also see real value in "Walled Garden" systems. I DO NOT want the government messing with my Xbox and forcing Microsoft to let Xbox's get software from any source out there. I quit PC gaming this year when I got my XSX, because the openness of PC gaming lets massive cheating exist and has ruined the MP experience of more than few AAA games for me.</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#614695">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes because before the stimulus checks Apple was in dire straights. Good thing those stimulus checks bailed them out.</p>