With a decline in total sales throughout the year 2020 – compared to 2019, the sales in Q4 showed growth. IDC has published the worldwide smartphone market report for the year 2020.
According to the IDC report, the 2020Q4 saw a 4.3% year-over-year growth with 385.9 million devices shipped compared to 369.9 million in 2019Q4. However, the full year 2020 saw a 5.9% decline with 1292.2 million shipments compared to 1372.6 million in 2019.
The report shows a good sign of the market returning back to normal after the Covid-affected year 2020. However, Samsung and Huawei had a year-over-year decline by 9.8% and 21.5% in shipments respectively.
Year-over-Year Ranking
Xiaomi has shown 17.6% growth, the highest yearly growth rate among the top five brands. Apple and Vivo follow respectively with 7.9% and 1.5% year-over-year growth compared to 2019.
Apart from the decline in growth rate, Samsung still stands as the top smartphone brand with a total of 266.7 million shipments in 2020. Apple, with 206.1 million shipments, replaces Huawei at 2nd spot, while Huawei moves to 3rd with 189 million shipments. Xiaomi and Vivo maintain their 4th and 5th slots respectively with 147.8 million and 111.7 million shipments in 2020.
| 2020 |
2019 |
||||
| Company | Shipments (in million) |
Market share | Shipments (in million) |
Market share | Growth (YoY) |
| 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% |
| Others | 371.0 | 28.7% | 409.5 | 29.8% | -9.4% |
| Total | 1,292.2 | 100% | 1,372.6 | 100% | -5.9% |
Quarterly Ranking
If we look at the quarterly data, Samsun seems to have gripped on its sales with a positive growth rate compared to 2019. However, it lost the top slot by Apple that shipped 90.1 million units in Q4 2020 compared to its 73.9 million shipments.
Xiaomi takes the third slot with 43.3 million units shipped followed by OPPO and Huawei with respective 33.8 million and 32.3 million shipments in Q4 2020.
| Q4 2020 | Q4 2019 | ||||
| Company | Shipments (in million) |
Market share | Shipments (in million) |
Market share | Growth (YoY) |
| 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% |
| Others | 112.4 | 29.1% | 107.1 | 28.9% | 5.0% |
| Total | 385.9 | 100% | 369.9 | 100% | 4.3% |
Looking at the data, Apple once again seems to gain momentum while Huawei seems to lose the ground to other smartphone brands.
Yearly data showed Vivo in IDC’s top 5 list of brands while in quarterly data, OPPO is the one among the top five. Xiaomi is the only brand that showed overall positive and highest growth rate in both yearly and quarterly data.
