Apple has taken the spot in the global smartphone market thanks to record iPhone shipments, while Samsung and Huawei have lost significant ground, according to the latest market research firm data.
Canalys research found that Apple shipped more iPhones than ever in the fourth quarter of 2020, at 81.8 million units. Samsung meanwhile took second place shipping 62 million units – a 12% decline compared to a year earlier. Of the rest in the top five, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo all gained share at Huawei's expense.
"The iPhone 12 is a hit," said Canalys Analyst Vincent Thielke. "Apple is better positioned than its competitors on 5G, being heavily skewed towards developed markets, and mobile operator sales channels. But it also made savvy moves behind the scenes to propel its sales and profitability. The omission of a power plug from the iPhone retail box, which reduces weight and size, is making logistics significantly more efficient, amid the ongoing high cost of air freight due to the pandemic."
Worldwide smartphone shipments reached 359.6 million units in the fourth quarter amid the second wave of the global health crisis, down slightly by 2% year-on-year, according to Canalys.
Looking at 2020 overall, Samsung remained in the top spot with 20% market share, but its growth declined annually by -14%. Apple came in second with 14%, with 5% growth. Huawei (including Honor), which has been hit with U.S. sanctions in several markets, took the third spot with 18% and a negative growth of -22%.
Apple's fortunes continued into this year, with the company yesterday announcing that the first fiscal quarter of 2021 was the best quarter in its history in terms of revenue and profit, topping the first fiscal quarter of 2020 and easily breaking through the $100 billion mark in revenue.
Perhaps. Just perhaps. People are starting to realize that although the iPhone is more expensive on the front end, it can last years longer than most other handsets AND will be supported for many more years than Android.
Thursday January 28, 2021 1:17 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple continues to hold a dominant position in the tablet market thanks to continued iPad sales growth throughout 2020, according to new data shared today by Canalys.
Apple shipped an estimated 19.2 million iPads during the fourth quarter of 2020 (which corresponds to Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2021), marking a 40 percent increase over the estimated 13.7 million tablets that it shipped...
Apple continued to have a dominant hold on the wearables market in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to new shipment estimates shared today by IDC. Apple shipped 55.6 million wearable devices during the quarter for 36.2 percent market share.
That's the same market share Apple held in the fourth quarter of 2019, but overall device shipments were up from 43.7 million in Q4 2019. Apple's...
Wednesday January 13, 2021 3:58 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple bucked a trend as falling global smartphone shipments in 2020 by increasing its shipment rate by over 10% compared to the previous year, claims a new report.
According to DigiTimes Research, global smartphone shipments suffered an overall 8.8% decline to 1.24 billion units last year, due in part to the crippling effects of the health crisis.
Despite that, however, worldwide...
Monday February 22, 2021 3:36 am PST by Sami Fathi
Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020, a feat not achieved by Apple since 2016, according to market data by Gartner.
In the final quarter of 2020, Apple sold 80 million new iPhones, largely driven by the launch of the first 5G-enabled iPhone series. Anshul Gupta, Senior Research Director at Gartner, says that 5G and improved...
Apple has regained its third-place position in the annual Fortune 500 rankings of the largest companies in the United States by revenue.
Apple earned $274.5 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year, an increase of 5.5 percent, and made $57.4 billion in profit, a 3.9 percent increase.
Last year, Apple fell to fourth place, but now the company returned to third place, only surpassed by...
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple saw its iPhone shipments in Gulf countries increase by 55% compared to the quarter prior, thanks to the launch of the 5G enabled iPhone 12 and last year's iPhone 11 lineup, according to market research by IDC.
In total, the region saw smartphone shipments grow by 2.3% in the last quarter of the year compared to Q3, to a total of 2.26 million units....
Apple may add health tracking features to AirPods in an effort to combat rival wireless earbuds from companies like Samsung, according to reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In a recent note to investors, seen by MacRumors, Kuo explained that Apple's sales of AirPods are expected to decline substantially this year, which will likely prompt the company to explore adding new, innovative features to ...
Apple produced 77.6 million iPhones units in the fourth quarter of 2020, 69.8 million of which were iPhone 12 models, helping the company overtake Samsung to become the top global smartphone brand, according to TrendForce.
The analysts' latest report says Apple sold 10 million more phones than its biggest rival over the quarter, with Samsung selling 67 million phones, a quarter-on-quarter...
Apple's shipments of wearables continued to grow year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, but the company lost overall market share to smaller rivals, according to newly-published IDC data.
Companies shipped a total of 104.6 million units in the first quarter of this year, marking a 34.4 percent increase from the 77.8 million units shipped at the same time last year. This is also the first ...
Apple's iPhone 12 Pro models are set to contribute significantly to a 50% year-on-year growth of smartphone shipments worldwide in the first quarter of this year, according analyses conducted by Digitimes Research.
The pace of iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max shipments is expected to align with a ramp up in shipments from Chinese brands eager to fill a vacuum in the global market left by...
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