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Smartphone sales plunged 20% in spring 2020 due to the pandemic
June 15, 2025
If you suspected that the globalsmartphone market would tumblefurther as theCOVID-19 pandemic hitin earnest, you guessed correctly.
Gartner analysts haveestimatedthat worldwide smartphone sales dropped a sharp 20.4% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020, right when many countries were in full lockdown or had only slightly eased restrictions. India’s sales were particularly hard-hit, falling a whopping 46% compared to the same period in 2019.
Smartphone sales Q2 2020 numbers
Not every phone maker fared the same, however.Samsungheld onto its market share lead at 18.6%, but its sales dropped 27.1% in the quarter — it just barely edged out HUAWEI, whose much smaller dip (6.8%) helped it grab an 18.4% slice. Xiaomi and OPPO also took substantial hits to their sales of 21.5% and 15.9% respectively.
There was one outlier in the top five brands, however. Apple’s sales only dipped 0.4% during Spring, helped both by a recovering Chinese market and the low-costiPhone SE. The company’s glowing performance in the US translated to the international stage, then. It ultimately claimed 13% of world smartphone sales.
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The researchers didn’t predict how phones would fare for the rest of 2020, although that’s not surprising. While a slew of new phone launches could boost demand, such as theGalaxy Note 20 familyandupcoming iPhone models, it’s becoming increasingly clear that some lockdowns and other restrictions will persist for a while. The phone industry might not revisit its heyday until it’s safe enough to resume a normal life — and that’s unlikely to happen this year.
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