The International Data Corporation (IDC) has released their report for worldwide smartphone shipments in the 4th quarter of 2020 and for the entire year. The smartphone market shipped a total of 385.9 million during Q4, which calculates to a modest growth of 4.3% and showing improved signs of recovery.
Despite being severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, during the second half the smartphone market recovered fairly quickly due to pent-up demand and high levels of inventory. Total shipments were 1.292 billion units, declining only 5.9% YoY.
The top 5 companies in the Q4 2020 were Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO and HUAWEI. Apple had a phenomenal 4th quarter this year, posting an all-time record revenue of $111.4 billion and shipping 90.1 million smartphones, thanks to the success of the iPhone 12 series. The company had a market share of 23.4% and YoY growth of 22.2%.
While Samsung came in 2nd place in Q4 2020, they took first place in overall worldwide shipments for 2020. In Q4, they shipped 73.9 million units, their most popular models belonging to their A-series smartphones. Xiaomi came in third place place with 43.3 million units shipped, OPPO in 4th place with 33.8 million units shipped and HUAWEI in 5th place with 32.3 million units shipped.
Commenting on the report, Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers said:
The recovery of both the smartphone market and its supply chain has been truly impressive and the year-end growth is testament to how far we’ve come. The majority of the world is either in some form of lockdown or still waiting to return to normal day-to-day life, yet smartphone sales are rebounding as though nothing ever happened. This illustrates the importance of smartphones in everyone’s life and provides a strong foundation for market demand. As the world progresses towards a post-pandemic environment, IDC believes demand will grow and the market recovery will accelerate.