Samsung Reclaims Top Spot on Phone Shipments as Apple Drops to 4th

Samsung has reclaimed their top spot in the smartphone market which was briefly taken by Huawei in the previous quarter.

The latest report from IDC revealed that Samsung has reclaimed top position on 3rd quarter of 2020 from Huawei. They shipped 80.4 million smartphones which is up 2.9% year over year. India is their largest market with 15% of the total volume. The growth is attributed to the strong performance in the sub $250 price segment where its M series models did well. The A series as well as the Note series did well in the US market which attributed to 20% of the total volume.

Huawei lost the top spot after shipping 51.9 million smartphones in the same period. They suffered a 22% drop year over year due to decline in international market and 15% drop in China. They are facing challenges due to increasing impact of US sanctions.

The surprising news is that Xiaomi pipped Apple from the 3rd spot thanks to them shipping 46.5 million devices. This was a 42% growth due to strong gains in India and strong presence in China. Their Redmi 9 series did well in both China and India.

Apple was 4th this quarter with 41.6 million iPhones sold which was 10.6% down year over year. The drop is attributed to the delay in the launch of the new iPhone 12 which is usually on the 3rd Quarter. The iPhone 11 was cited to have done exceptionally well followed by the SE. IDC expects Apple to do well in the coming quarters with strong demand for the iPhone 12 and robust trade in offers from carriers.