Smartphone sales cratered during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they’re now starting to climb out of the hole, suggest new research from analysts at IDC. And the iPhone 12 is leading the way.
According to data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone vendors shipped 385.9 million devices in the holiday quarter of 2020. Although the year as a whole represents a dip of 5.9% compared to 2019, the last calendar quarter saw 4.3% growth.
“There are a lot of elements at play that are fueling the smartphone market recovery – pent-up demand, continued supply push on 5G, aggressive promotions, and the popularity of low to mid-priced phones,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “Vendors also seem to be better prepared for the second lockdown, ensuring they have the right channel set up ready to fulfill orders and reach the end consumer. Lockdowns also have people spending less on areas like leisure, travel, and dining out – and smartphones are benefitting from this. In addition to all these factors, the fast recovery and resilience of the smartphone supply chain also has to be given some credit.”
Photo: IDC
Good times for Apple
According to IDC, Apple was the quarter’s big winner, with 90.1 million devices shipped during the three-month period. As IDC notes, Apple actually defied the overall downward trend with 22.2% year-over-year growth. It currently enjoys an overall 23.4% market share. IDC puts this interest down to the phenomenally successful iPhone 12. It doesn’t break down which of the iPhone models has done the best.
After Apple, Samsung took second place, followed by Xiaomi, OPPO, and Huawei. Huawei, which previously overtook Apple in smartphone shipments, was the only top vendor on the list to have a negative year-over-year change. It fell 42.4% in Q4 due to sanctions in the United States.
Apple yesterday published its earnings for the last calendar quarter of 2020. Sales of the iPhone brought in $65.5 billion during the quarter. This was a 17% year-over-year jump from the same quarter one year earlier. Apple no longer reveals exact unit sales for the iPhone.
