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Apple, not Samsung, was the top-selling smartphone brand in late 2020
June 04, 2025
Android no longer has the top spot among smartphone brands. Gartner analysts haveestimatedthat Apple overtook Samsung to become the top-selling phone maker in the fourth quarter of 2020, claiming 20.8% market share to its rival’s 16.2%. That’s a sharp turnaround from the same time a year earlier, when Samsung just edged out Apple to get 17.3% market share.
Other top brands fared well, but it was a rough time for the industry as a whole.Xiaomisurged from 8% market share to 11.3% in the space of a year, but OPPO only nudged ahead slightly from 7.5% to 8.9%. And it was another disastrous quarter for HUAWEI — theUS trade bancut its share from 14.3 percent in late 2019 to just 8.9% at the end of 2020.
The overall phone market contracted 5.4% due in no small part to theCOVID-19 pandemicprompting many customers to limit their spending.
It’s a significant milestone for Apple. This was the first time the phone maker had topped Gartner’s quarterly market share ranks since fall 2016 and the iPhone 7. Samsung still led the full-year share with 18.8% versus Apple’s 14.8%, but the lead narrowed considerably.
See also:The best Android phones
Apple’s rise was helped by a perfect storm of events. The pandemic pushed theiPhone 12launch from the company’s usual September time frame to October, creating a sales spike that would otherwise have been slightly muted. This was also Apple’s largest selection of iPhones to date, with the12 Minioffering one more option. HUAWEI’s fall from grace certainly helped Apple’s phone market share numbers, even if customers didn’t switch.
The shift in phone market share was partly a reflection of Samsung’s challenges. It faced fiercer competition from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo as they gained influence outside of their home country. Low-end and mid-range phones thrived in the fourth quarter, Gartner said, and Chinese vendors have thrived in those categories in recent years.
It’s not certain how most of these brands will fare in 2021. Mass vaccinations and the overall pandemic recovery could spark demand as people leave home more often. TheGalaxy S21could help Samsung’s fortunes givenstrong early demand, but it’s not guaranteed to fare better overall when budget phones and direct rivals like theXiaomi Mi 11pose major threats. It’s safe to presume HUAWEI will struggle — it doesn’t have much of a future in phoneswithout its own chipsor theHONOR brand.
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