Market Stats

Xiaomi Moves Ahead of Apple, Now No. 3 Smartphone Vendor

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Xiaomi moved past Apple into the No. 3 worldwide supplier position as smartphone sales to end-users globally totalled 366 million units in Q3 2020 (down 5.7% from Q3 2019).

According to a new Gartner report, Xiaomi grew 34.9% in Q3 2020, securing 12.1% market share while overall global mobile phone sales to end users totalled 401 million units, a decline of 8.7% year-over-year. 

This year, after two consecutive quarters of 20% decline, quarterly smartphone sales have started to show signs of recovery. Despite that growth, smartphone sales remain weaker compared to the same time in 2019-- even with vendors introducing multiple 5G smartphones and governments relaxing shelter-in-place instructions in some geographies. 

Gartner Smartphone Sales Q3 2020

“Consumers are limiting their discretionary spend even as some lockdown conditions have started to improve,” says Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. “Global smartphone sales experienced moderate growth from the second quarter of 2020 to the third quarter. This was due to pent-up demand from previous quarters.” 

Economic uncertainties and continued fear of the next wave of the pandemic continue to put pressure on nonessential spending through the end of 2020. The delay in 5G network upgrades has also limited the opportunity for smartphone vendors.

Among the top five smartphone manufacturers, Samsung held the No. 1 position with 22% market share (See Table 1). Xiaomi moved ahead of Apple into the No. 3 position for the first time ever with sales of 44.4 million units compared to Apple’s sales of 40.5 million units in the third quarter of 2020. 

“Early signs of recovery can be seen in a few markets, including parts of mature Asia/Pacific and Latin America. Near normal conditions in China improved smartphone production to fill in the supply gap in the third quarter which benefited sales to some extent,” adds Gupta. “For the first time this year, smartphone sales to end users in three of the top five markets i.e., India, Indonesia and Brazil increased, growing 9.3%, 8.5% and 3.3%, respectively.” 

Samsung and Xiaomi were the only vendors in the top five to experience growth in Q3 2020. Samsung benefited from its strong positioning amongst Android users and recorded sales of 80.8 million units. Xiaomi grew 34.9% in the third quarter of 2020, securing 12.1% market share and moving past Apple into the No. 3 position. Xiaomi gained from Huawei’s loss including strong performance in China. 

“Apple sold 40.5 million units in the third quarter of 2020, a decline of 0.6% as compared to 2019,” said Annette Zimmermann, research VP Gartner. “The slight decrease was mainly due to Apple’s delayed shipment start of its new 2020 iPhone generation, which in previous years would always start mid/end September. This year, the launch event and shipment start began 4 weeks later than usual.”

Gartner clients can learn more in the report Market Share: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, All Countries, 3Q20 Update.

Go Gartner: Worldwide Smartphone Sales Q3 2020

Largest Year-Over-Year Decline in Q1 2020 Due to COVID-19

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And Western Europe dropped by even more: 18.3%.

This is the largest annual (year over year) decline-- ever:  in total, companies shipped 275.8 million smartphones during Q1 2020. 

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IDC: European Smartphones Set for Massive Decline

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According to IDC, the current national lockdowns put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus will lead to the value of the European smartphone market falling by over -25% in 2020.

IDC Euro mobile forecast

The -26.8% decline comes from the "probable" scenario the analyst forecast. An optimistic scenario sees the market falling in value by -10% in 2020, while the pessimistic version has it drop by nearly -50%. The probable and pessimistic scenarios represent the sharpest reversal the European phone industry has seen in the 20 years IDC has been monitoring the market. So far, the sharpest drop the region has seen took place at the time of the financial crisis, when the value of the European phone market fell by -6.3% in 2008 and -13.1% in 2009 in dollar terms. According to Eurostat, the European GDP contracted by over -4% in 2009.

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SA: Smartphones See Biggest Shipment Tumble Yet

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SmartphonesStrategy Analytics (SA) reports global smartphone shipments are down by -38% Y-o-Y to 61.8 million units in February 2020-- the biggest fall ever in the history of the smartphone market, at least according to the analyst.

Such a decline is, perhaps obviously, the result of demand collapse in Asia due to the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) outbreak. Furthermore, some Asian factories are unable to manufacture smartphones, while many customers are unable or unwilling to visit stores and buy new devices. Demand is set to recover in China, but shipments will remain weak throughout March 2020.

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Gartner: Q4 2019 Smartphone Sales Down "Slightly"

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Global smartphone sales to end users are down by -0.4% Y-o-Y in Q4 2019, Gartner reports. Sales are also on the decline for overall 2019 as they contract by -1%, a "little bit better" than the analyst expected.

Gartner Q4 2019 smartphone sales

Apple and Xiaomi are the only two vendors in the top 5 to see growth in Q4 2019, even if Samsung maintains the top position with 17.3% market share despite a slight -0.5% Y-o-Y sales decline. The S. Korean giant also remains on top for full-year 2019, with sales growing by 0.4% to 296.2 million units. The company managed to revamp its midtier and entry-level smartphone offering in 2019, and in 2020 will be butting heads with the likes of Huawei in high-end foldable devices.

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