Pandemic and all, Apple shipped more phones in the last quarter of 2020 than any other manufacturer. Market research firm Gartner estimates that the company shipped about 80 million iPhones in the previous quarter. The performance, one of Apple’s best to date, helped surpass Samsung’s for the first time since Q4 2016. Samsung still ended the year with the most phone sales from any manufacturer, but saw an annual drop of 14.6 percent after a quarter in which shipments fell by 11.8 percent year-on-year. Compare that to Apple, which grew by 14.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 and grew sales by 3.3 percent annually.
Gartner suggests that the launch of the iPhone 12 helped Apple significantly, but probably just as essential to its success were all the expensive duds Samsung released in 2020. The company did itself no favors with the Galaxy S20 and Note 20, both of which it is safe to say were too expensive when they first came out. With the cheaper Galaxy S21 to offer to consumers, Samsung is in a much better position in 2021.
For all the misery of Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the rest of the year, it did not have as bad as Huawei. Sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are taking their toll on the company. Shipping fell 41.1 percent during the quarter and sales fell 24.1 percent for the year.
Going back to Apple for a moment, it’s not just the iPhone that does work for the company. Thanks to the pandemic and associated home orders, the Mac is also up and running. According to a recent Canalys report, Apple’s shipping volume grew by 45 percent in 2020 and by 16.6 percent year-on-year in Q4 2020.