The iPhone is one of the most famous smartphones as well as one of the most controversial. Although the iPhone is one of the most recognized smartphones in the world, Samsung (its top contender) has always been ahead of Apple in the smartphone race. Samsung has consistently been at the top of the smartphone market but this time Apple has become the top dog in the market and it seems like the iPhone 12 series is the voodoo that has performed the trick. Apple has emerged as the world’s largest smartphone company. Although this is impressive news worthy of doffing our hats, it is quite surprising that a company with a market capitalization of $2 trillion that experts say might increase to $3 trillion before the end of the year, could ever be behind another brand in anything. There’s always a first time for everything, right? Although it is not really the first time Apple has sold more phones than Samsung, it is the company’s first time since 2016.
According to Gartner, the iPhone maker shipped almost 80 million smartphones in the last quarter of 2020. This figure is more than that of other brands including its biggest contender Samsung. Apple witnessed year-on-year growth of 14.9 percent while Samsung’s sales fell by 11.8 percent in the last quarter. Putting into consideration that Apple releases a limited number of devices on an annual basis compared to the large quantity of models that Samsung releases, the iPhone 12 series (and probably the iPhone 11 series) might have done the trick of bringing Apple to its current position as the phone seems to be doing well in the market.
According to Gartner’s report, ‘the launch of the 5G iPhone 12 series helped Apple record double-digit growth in the fourth quarter of 2020’. Samsung seemed to have relegated in the last quarter and this can be attributed to the tough competition it is getting from brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, etc., that have taken the smartphone market by a storm. According to Gartner, ‘it faced tough competition from regional smartphone vendors such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, as these brands grew more aggressive in global markets. In 2020, Apple and Xiaomi were the only two smartphones to have seen growth and this leaves us with the question of what next Samsung has up its sleeves. Probably a new phone OS, more mid-range phones? No one really knows and we can’t wait to find out!
