Phone sales are down in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Angela Lang/CNET
Apple dropped into the fourth position for global smartphone sales during the third quarter of 2020, according to an analyst firm. In a report Monday, Gartner reported that total sales of smartphones during the quarter worldwide reached 366 million — down almost 6% since last year as fewer people buy phones during the coronavirus pandemic.
Samsung sold 80.8 million phones in the third quarter, growing by 2.2% since last year. Huawei sold 51.8 million, down more than 20%, while fellow Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi sold 35% more phones compared to the same quarter last year. Xiaomi’s sales of 44.4 million smartphones pushed Apple out of the top three.
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Apple’s sales dropped by 0.6% year over year, down to 40.6 million phones in the third quarter. Rounding out the top five smartphone vendors was Oppo, with 29.9 million phones sold.
As the economic uncertainty from the pandemic continues, and even worsens in some areas, people are less likely to buy nonessential items, Gartner said. But Apple’s drop in sales was attributed to the delayed announcement of the 2020 iPhones.
