We have the last IDC report on worldwide smartphone shipments and after a very eventful year, things stabilized from October 1 to December 31. The market had a rebound quarter with a total of 385.9 million shipments, with Apple’s share of 90.1 million. Overall, the market grew 4.3% from Q4 2019 and all major smartphone vendors (excluding Huawei) recorded positive growth levels for the end of 2020.
Fueled by the release of its iPhone 12 series, Apple had the best shipping volume of any vendor in a single quarter, which rightly translated into 22.2% year-over-year growth. the other. Samsung was second in terms of shipments for the period with 73.9 million units sold for the quarter and annual growth of 6.2% as it saw continued growth in the entry and mid-segment. range in all major markets.
| Company | Q4 2020 Expeditions (in millions) |
Q4 2020 Market share |
Deliveries in Q4 2019 (in millions) |
Q4 2019 Market share |
Annual growth |
| Apple | 90.1 | 23.4% | 73.8 | 19.9% | 22.2% |
| Samsung | 73.9 | 19.1% | 69.5 | 18.8% | 6.2% |
| Xiaomi | 43.3 | 11.2% | 32.8 | 8.9% | 32.0% |
| Oppo | 33.8 | 8.8% | 30.6 | 8.3% | 10.7% |
| Huawei | 32.3 | 8.4% | 56.2 | 15.2% | -42.4% |
| Other | 112.4 | 29.1% | 107.1 | 28.9% | 5.0% |
| Total | 385.9 | 100% | 369.9 | 100% | 4.3% |
Xiaomi came in third with 43.4 million shipments and the strongest year-over-year growth of any vendor in the fourth quarter at 32%. Oppo followed suit with 33.8 million shipments and 10.7% annual growth, while Huawei fell from 56.2 million shipments in Q4 2019 to just 32.2 million in Q4 2020 , resulting in a 42.4% drop in shipping volumes.
Despite the good performance of the last quarter of 2020, it has been a tough year for the smartphone market, with shipments falling by around 6% compared to 2019 values. Apart from Xiaomi (+ 17.6%), Apple ( + 7.9%) and vivo (+ 1.5%), all the major brands saw their shipments decrease on an annual basis. Samsung still held the crown in terms of shipping volume with 266.7 million units shipped for the year. Apple managed 206.1 million while Huawei contributed 189 million shipments for the calendar year.
| Company | 2020 Expeditions (in millions) |
2020 Market share |
2019 Expeditions (in millions) |
2019 Market share |
Annual growth |
| Samsung | 266.7 | 20.6% | 295.8 | 21.6% | -9.8% |
| Apple | 206.1 | 15.9% | 191.0 | 13.9% | 7.9% |
| Huawei | 189.0 | 14.6% | 240.6 | 17.5% | -21.5% |
| Xiaomi | 147.8 | 11.4% | 125.6 | 9.2% | 17.6% |
| vivo | 111.7 | 8.6% | 110.1 | 8.0% | 1.5% |
| Other | 371.0 | 28.7% | 409.5 | 29.8% | -9.4% |
| Total | 1292.2 | 100% | 1372.6 | 100% | -5.9% |
The combined total of smartphones shipped for 2020 stood at 1.29 billion units, 5.9% lower than the 2019 total of 1.37 billion units. IDC estimates that 2021 will be a rebound year for the smartphone market and that shipping levels will eventually rebound.
Source