Apple Tops Q4 Smartphone Share, First Time Since 2016: Gartner

Apple led the field of smartphone vendors in Q4 for the first time since 2016, grabbing 20.8% share on strength of the iPhone 12 series, reported Gartner Monday. Apple’s sales grew 14.9% to 79.9 million units. Overall, global sales of smartphones to end users fell 5.4% to 384.6 million in Q4 as consumers largely “remained cautious” in spending and delayed some discretionary purchases, said analyst Anshul Gupta. But 5G smartphones and pro-camera features “encouraged some end users to purchase new smartphones or upgrade their current smartphones.” Samsung quarterly shipments fell 11.8%, for 16.2% share. Samsung held its full-year lead, though it suffered a year-on-year decline of 14.6% in shipments to 253 million as it faced “tough competition” from regional smartphone vendors Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, said Gupta. Apple and Xiaomi were the only two of the top five with growth. The ban on use of Google applications on Huawei smartphones hurt the Chinese smartphone maker, which had a 41% plunge in Q4 shipments. Availability of lower end 5G smartphones and innovative features will fuel upgrades in 2021, said the analyst.