London, UK (CNN) – A new study shows that the surge in iPhone sales in the last 3 months of 2020 pushed Apple to overtake Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer.
Gartner said in a statement on Monday that the launch of the iPhone 12 series with the fifth generation, 5G network, pushed Apple to first place in the fourth quarter of last year.
The last time Apple ranked first in selling smartphones was in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to Gartner data, which tracks sales to consumers.
Apple, which launched a lineup of its new phones in mid-October, sold about 80 million smartphones in the last 3 months of 2020, an increase of 15% over the same period of the previous year.
The company also shipped the largest number of iPhones ever to distributors in one quarter, at 81.8 million, according to research published by Singapore-based Canalys late last month. By this measure, Apple has outperformed Samsung in fourth-quarter sales since 2017.
And the last 3 months of the year are often the strongest for Apple because it usually unveils the new iPhones in September. The detection was postponed last year until October due to supply chain disruptions caused by the outbreak of the Corona pandemic.
Samsung usually updates its flagship Galaxy S phones in February, which contributes to a much stronger performance in the first quarter of the year. But this year, the company announced its new phones a month ago.
And “Apple” achieved growth in its sales despite the shrinking sales in the market, as global sales of smart phones fell by 5.4% in the last quarter, according to “Gartner”, amid high unemployment rates and weak consumer spending due to the epidemic. Smartphone sales decreased by 12.5% in 2020 compared to the previous year.
Samsung sold 62 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of the year, and Gartner said that the company maintained its position as the largest global smartphone manufacturer for the whole year, despite a 15% drop in sales and competition from Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO. And Vivo.
As for “Huawei”, which surpassed “Samsung” in the second quarter of 2020, it suffered the largest drop among the top 5 smart phone sellers in the world, which caused it to lose second place in favor of “Apple” for the whole year. Gartner said the brand ranked fourth in the world in the last 3 months of the year.
