Xiaomi Leapfrogged Apple for 3rd Place in Global Q3 Smartphone Share

Global smartphone sales to end users were 366 million handsets in Q3, down 5.7% from the 2019 quarter, reported Gartner Monday. After two straight quarters of 20% declines, quarterly smartphone sales have started to show signs of recovery sequentially, it said. Smartphones remain weak compared with 2019, “even with vendors introducing multiple 5G smartphones,” it said. “Consumers are limiting their discretionary spend even as some lockdown conditions have started to improve.” Sales experienced “moderate growth” from Q2 to Q3, through “pent-up demand from previous quarters,” it said. Samsung held the top global share in Q3 with 22%, with Huawei second at 14.1%. Xiaomi leapfrogged Apple to No. 3 (12.1% share). Xiaomi sold 44.4 million, a 34.9% increase from the 2019 quarter, while Apple sales declined 0.6% to 40.6 million.