Global smartphone shipments recovered in Q4 2020 after a tumultuous year.
While Apple led the quarter, Samsung ended 2020 as the world’s biggest smartphone OEM.
Firms like Realme and Xiaomi continued to shine, while Lenovo and LG lost ground in 2020.
The global smartphone market experienced a mild recovery in the final quarter of 2020 after a tumultuous year for the industry as a whole. While the majority of OEMs failed to gain any momentum in the final three months of the year, Apple stood head and shoulders above the pack.
Apple saw quarter-on-quarter growth of 96% in Q4 2020, shipping nearly 20 million more units than second-placed Samsung, per Counterpoint’s latest report. It’s clear that the iPhone 12 series is putting considerable pressure on the Korean firm, and as a result, Samsung saw its quarterly growth slashed by 22%. The Galaxy S21 series maker still finished top of the tree in 2020 as a whole, claiming 19% of the global market share over Apple’s 15%.