Xiaomi zooms past Apple in global smartphone sales in third quarter; Samsung holds pole position

Xiaomi has overtaken Apple. According to Gartner, Xiaomi, the Chinese multinational electronic giant zoomed past Apple in smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2020. Xiaomi sold 44.4 million handsets this summer, a more than 11 million jump in the sale as compared to a year earlier. While Xiaomi had a market share of 12.1 per cent, near to 4 per cent rise from last year, its US counterpart too gained market share but suffered a slight dip in sales with 40.6 million units in the same period.

Among the top competitors, Samsung held the first spot with 80.8 million sales and 22 per cent market share. Huawei sales were most affected by the US-China trade wars as sales dipped from 65.8 million in 2019 to 51.8 million in 2020.

Overall, the situation improved for the smartphone space in the third quarter of 2002 compared to the first two. Although sales were down by 5.7 per cent as compared to last year, it was better than a 20 per cent drop in the first two quarters of 2020. As China sprung back to action, productions were restored. The Asian and Latin America market conditions also returned to some normalcy as lockdowns were relaxed.

Factors like Huawei’s decline and Apple’s delay in the launch of iPhone 12 until October played a key role in Xiaomi’s success. As Apple missed on the September surge, Xiami filled the vacuum with launches like Mi10, Mi10T Pro, Redmi 9A and the kinds. The fourth-quarter smartphone sale figures might be a different story though with Apple launching not one, not two, but four new iPhones across varying price segments.