Apple Surpasses Samsung as World's Largest Smartphone Manufacturer

According to a recent market analysis report, tech giant Apple passed Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020.

According to a recent report from MacRumors, tech giant Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor in the world in the fourth quarter of 2020, a position of dominance Apple last enjoyed in 2016.

Market data from Gartner shows that in the final quarter of 2020, Apple sold 80 million new iPhones with many sales seemingly driven by the launch of the first 5G-enabled iPhone series.

Anshul Gupta, a Senior Research Director at Gartner, stated that 5G and improved camera capabilities convinced many customers o upgrade to the iPhone 12 in the final quarter of 2020. Gupta stated: “Even as consumers remained cautious in their spending and held off on some discretionary purchases, 5G smartphones and pro-camera features encouraged some end users to purchase new smartphones or upgrade their current smartphones in the quarter.”

Apple sold more than 10 million additional iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 2019 and saw its global smartphone market share increase by nearly 15 percent. Samsun, Apple’s closest rival, saw its market share decrease by 11.8 percent and sold eight million fewer devices in 2020 compared to 2019.

Global smartphone sales have decreased by around 12.5 percent in 2020. Of the top five smartphone manufacturers, Apple and Chinese brand Xiaomi were the only two that did not take a hit due to the global sales decline.

In a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised the company’s “phenomenal” business in China. Cook described the product and feature changes being driven by the Chinese market:

There’s a ton of features there that are. Whether it’s specific keyboards, whether it’s QR Code mode. 5G in a lot of ways was energized in China because China is so far ahead in the coverage model for 5G. Junction view in Maps because of the complex intersections and so forth. Night mode was another one where the inspiration for Night Mode came from China. And so we listen very carefully to our customers there and wind up creating things based on that, that is then given to the world. We get a lot of feedback from China.