The latest data from research firm IDC gives Samsung a sizeable lead as the top smartphone manufacturer worldwide during the third quarter. After shipping 80.4 million units from July through September, Samsung owned 22.7% of the connected handset market for an annual increase of 2.9%. During the period, Samsung released the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The company’s online-only M Series phones also did well as did the A Series in the states.
Huawei hung on to second place despite a decline of 22% in the number of phones shipped to 51.9 million during the third quarter. That gave the beleaguered Chinese manufacturer 14.7% of the global smartphone market. Now, are you ready for the biggest shakeup? Are you sitting? Number three on the list is not Apple. Thanks to a stunning 42% increase in phone shipments year-over-year, Xiaomi beat out Apple for third place by nearly five million phone deliveries. Xiaomi’s value for money MO helped it achieve a market share of 13.1% as it delivered 46.5 million handsets during the quarter. Apple dropped to fourth after a 10.6% decline in shipments to 41.6 million units giving it an 11.8% share of the market.
Xiaomi did very well in India and China and it is estimated that Apple shipped 41.6 million iPhone handsets during the quarter. The iPhone 11 series continued to do well while the iPhone SE (2020) chipped in.
Vivo shipped 31.5 million phones during Q3 (up 4.2% on an annual basis) had an 8.9% slice of the smartphone pie. The “others” category, which includes brands not mentioned in the top five, shipped 101.7 million handsets representing a market share of 28.8%. That works out to a decline of 2.4% year-over-year.
Overall, third-quarter smartphone shipments amounted to 353.6 million units, a 1.3% decline from the number shipped during the same time period last year.
