IPhone sales push Apple to the top of the smartphone market

The sales of the iPhone 12 led Apple to the top of the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2020, which had not happened since 2016. This is attested by a report by the analysis company Gartner, according to which Cupertino has sold about 79.9 million iPhone phones in the last three months of the year - + 15% compared to 2019 - surpassing Samsung in a global market that fell by about 5.4% over the period, by 12.5% ​​in the year.

According to Gartner, Apple captured 20.8% of the market;

while Samsung reported an 11.8% drop in sales to 62.1 million units over the period, giving the South Korean company 16.2% of the global market.

The general market has been hit by the caution of global consumers, with the decline limited by the introduction of new 5G phones.

"Sales of multiple 5G and lower-mid-range smartphones minimized the market decline in the fourth quarter of 2020," said Gartner's Anshul Gupta. "Even though consumers remained cautious in spending and curbed some purchases," 5G smartphones and pro-camera capabilities have encouraged some users to buy new smartphones or upgrade their current ones. "

After Apple and Samsung, Xiaomi and Oppo based in China held the third and fourth place in the global smartphone market of the last quarter of 2020, respectively with 11.3 and 8.9%.

China's Huawei, hit by US administration sanctions, fell to fifth place with 8.9%.

Regarding the full-year data, the market suffered a sharp decline of 12.5% ​​as sales dropped to 1.3 billion units.

In this case, Samsung is the first company with an 18.8% share, ahead of Apple's 14.8%.