Apple will be the world's largest manufacturer for the first time in years in the fourth quarter of 2020. Samsung ranked behind in terms of market share.
In addition to the devices, retailers also try to sell various types of insurance to consumers.
Thanks to the new 5G-capable iPhone 12, Apple has risen to become the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones for the first time in four years, according to data from market researchers at Gartner. In the fourth quarter, the US group overtook its South Korean competitor Samsung with a market share of 20.8 percent, which only came in at 16.2 percent, as Gartner announced on Monday.
A year earlier, Samsung was just ahead with 17.3 percent versus 17.1 percent. The demand for devices for the new 5G mobile communications standard helped the industry to cushion the slump in sales in the final spurt in 2020. According to Gartner, 384.6 million smartphones were sold worldwide between October and December, 5.4 percent fewer than a year earlier.
Samsung with sales decline of almost 15 percent
For the year as a whole, sales to end users fell by 12.5 percent to just under 1.35 billion. Samsung maintained the top position with a market share of 18.8 percent, but had to accept a drop in sales of 14.6 percent. With a plus of 3.3 percent, Apple was the only winner among the top 5 worldwide alongside the Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, and with a market share of 14.8 percent it overtook its Chinese competitor Huawei, which sold almost a quarter fewer smartphones and was only on 13.5 percent market share came. Huawei's access to apps from Google was made more difficult due to US sanctions.
Gartner market researcher Anshul Gupta is more confident about this year: “The growing demand for affordable 5G smartphones outside of China will drive sales figures up in 2021.”
