Apple regains second place in the smartphone market, taking advantage of Huawei's vulnerability to US sanctions

The American company Apple (Apple) has regained its position from the Chinese company Huawei (Huawei) as the second best-selling company for smartphones in the world in 2020.

According to new research reports from Counterpoint Research and Canalys, the Korean company Samsung is still the number one seller in terms of the number of smartphones shipped, while Xiaomi ( Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are the next three places, according to Counterpoint.

These analysts had reported, a little less than a year ago, that Huawei overtook Apple to take second place in 2019, but the US trade sanctions seem to have affected Huawei severely after that.

The Chinese company's smartphone shipments decreased by 21% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to Counterpoint, and Huawei ranked from the top five entirely in the fourth quarter of last year.

This is the first time in 6 years that Huawei is not in the top five, according to the Kanlis Foundation.

While Huawei was still able to maintain the third place overall, thanks to domestic sales in China (it was said to have shipped 70% of its phones in 2019), Xiaomi seized the opportunity to expand internationally and the Chinese company's shipments saw a 17% increase in 2020 compared to 2019. .

However, it has been reported that the fastest growing smartphone brand in 2020 was Realme, which shipped 65% more phones than it did in 2019.

Apple's profits were more modest, increasing by 3% to 5% annually, and it should be noted that Apple shipped the largest number of iPhones at all in the fourth quarter of last year.

Although it is still the world's best-selling smartphone manufacturer, both reports indicate that Samsung's smartphone business is losing market share.

Both Kanleys and Counterpoint say their shipments are down 14% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Samsung is still ahead of Apple, which comes in second place with about 50 million smartphones, while the gap appears to be narrowing.

Counterpoint says the South Korean electronics giant is facing stiff competition from Apple and Chinese manufacturers in the medium term.

In general, it was reported that the entire smartphone market had decreased compared to 2019, so Cannellis stated that shipments decreased by 7%, while Counter Point reported a further decrease of 10%.

Counterpoint blames the epidemic and lockdowns resulting from the drop, but notes that shipments began to recover in the second half of the year.