Worldwide smartphone sales to end-users totaled 366 million units in the 3rd quarter of 2020, down 5.7% from same period of 2019, according to Gartner, Inc. Overall global mobile phone sales to end users totaled 401 million units, a decline of 8.7% year-over-year.
After two consecutive quarters of a decline of 20%, quarterly smartphone sales have started to show signs of recovery sequentially. However, smartphone sales continued to remain weaker compared to the same time period in in 2019, even with vendors introducing multiple 5G smartphones & governments relaxing shelter-in-place instructions in some geographies.
“Consumers are limiting their discretionary spend even as some lockdown conditions have started to improve,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner in a written statement. “Global smartphone sales experienced moderate growth from the second quarter of 2020 to the third quarter. This was due to pent-up demand from previous quarters.”
Economic uncertainties & continued fear of the next wave of the pandemic continue to put pressure on nonessential spending through the end of 2020. The delay in 5G network upgrades has also limited the opportunity for smartphone vendors, said the press release.
Among the top 5 smartphone manufacturers, Samsung held the No. 1 position with 22% market share. Xiaomi moved ahead of Apple into the No. 3 position for the 1st time ever with sales of 44.4 million units compared to Apple’s sales of 40.5 million units in the 3rd quarter of 2020.
“Early signs of recovery can be seen in a few markets, including parts of mature Asia/Pacific & Latin America. Near normal conditions in China improved smartphone production to fill in the supply gap in the 3rd quarter which benefited sales to some extent,” said Gupta. “For the first time this year, smartphone sales to end users in three of the top five markets i.e., India, Indonesia & Brazil increased, growing 9.3%, 8.5% & 3.3%, respectively.”
Samsung & Xiaomi were the only vendors in the top 5 to experience growth in the 3rd quarter of 2020. Samsung benefited from its strong positioning amongst Android users & recorded sales of 80.8 million units. Xiaomi grew 34.9% in the 3rd quarter of 2020, securing 12.1% market share & moving past Apple into the No. 3 position. Xiaomi gained from Huawei’s loss including strong performance in China.
Apple sold 40.5 million units in the 3rd quarter of 2020, a decline of 0.6% as compared to 2019,” said Annette Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner in a written statement. “The slight decrease was mainly due to Apple’s delayed shipment start of its new 2020 iPhone generation, which in previous years would always start mid/end September. This year, the launch event & shipment start began 4 weeks later than usual.”
Gartner clients can learn more in the report “Market Share: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, All Countries, 3Q20 Update.”
