- For the first time since 2016, Apple overtook Samsung as the bestselling smartphone in Q4 of 2020.
- The company was boosted by sales of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, a Gartner report suggested
- Global smartphone sales fell 12.5% in 2020, although Xiaomi and Huawei increased their market share.
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Apple overtook Samsung as the bestselling smartphone brand in the last quarter of 2020, according to analysts at Gartner.
It marked the first time since 2016 that Apple had occupied the top spot, with 20.8% of the market share.
Samsung took 16.2% of the market share but retained its position as the top smartphone brand in whole-year sales. Xiaomi, Oppo, and Huawei made up the rest of the top five for the last quarter of 2020.
Experts suggested Apple was boosted by the release of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro in October and a decline in Huawei’s sales figures.
The Pro model has continued to sell particularly well in the first fiscal quarter of 2021.
Apple reported record revenue of $111.4 billion and $65.6 billion in iPhone revenue after the release of its new models.
Samsung previously warned that competition could affect its fourth-quarter profits when it posted record quarterly revenues of $59.05 billion in the third quarter of 2020.
Although smartphone brands had a good final quarter of 2020, the report said smartphone sales declined 12.5% across the year, with Samsung experiencing a year-on-year decline of 14.6%.
The smartphone market is no longer a two-horse race, with Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi all increasing the market share in 2020.
Huawei led the second quarter of 2020 according to a Canalys report but has since suffered due to trade restrictions in the US.
After selling nearly five million more smartphones than Apple in the third quarter of 2020, Chinese company Xiaomi increased its market share to 10.8% in 2020 compared to 8.2% in 2019.
