Samsung, Huawei see drop, Apple steady as global smartphone sales fall 20%
1 min read . Updated: 25 Aug 2020, 03:32 PM IST
Premium- The Gartner report says Apple registered almost flat year-on-year sales with 38 million smartphones sold in this quarter. Huawei and Samsung both sold just under 55 million units, dropping by 27.1% and 6.8%, respectively
NEW DELHI: Worldwide smartphone sales dropped by 20.4% to 295 million units in the second quarter of 2020, according to a report by technology research firm Gartner. Samsung and Huawei topped the charts this quarter, with Apple, Xiaomi and Oppo following suit.
The Gartner report says Apple registered almost flat year-on-year sales with 38 million smartphones sold in this quarter, a 0.4% year-on-year decrease. Huawei and Samsung both sold just under 55 million units, dropping by 27.1% and 6.8%, respectively. Xiaomi and Oppo came in next, with 26 and 23 million phones sold in this quarter, respectively.
“The improved situation in China saw demand recovering quarter-over-quarter," said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. Gupta said that travel restrictions, retail closures and more prudent spending on non-essential products led to a second consecutive quarterly decline in the sale of smartphones.
Huawei’s rise to a “virtual tie" with Samsung is mostly due to the company’s lead in the Chinese market, where it owns 42.6% of the market. The company’s business has been hit by the sanctions placed by the US government, which experts say, could cripple its smartphone business in the long run.
The worldwide decline in smartphone sales was also a result of overall declines in the two largest smartphone markets. China registered a 7% decline in sales in this quarter, while smartphone sales dropped by 46% in India during the quarter. The two countries are the largest and second largest smartphone markets worldwide, respectively.
