Samsung Regains Top Spot in Global Smartphone Market in August, Huawei Falls to 16 Percent: Counterpoint

Samsung has regained its top position in the global smartphone market as of August 2020 after losing it to Huawei earlier this year, Counterpoint's latest report suggests. It also returned to the top spot in India as well, for the first time since 2018, according to the report. In August the Korean giant enjoyed 22 percent of the monthly global smartphone market share – the highest by any manufacturer to do so. Huawei has reportedly slipped into second position globally in August with 16 percent market share, a significant decline from April when it enjoyed a market share of 21 percent. Xiaomi, on the other hand, is seeing a steady increase and it has 11 percent of the global smartphone market share as of August 2020.

There was a temporary downfall in Samsung smartphone sales during April due to the lockdown restrictions in major markets like India, the report says. However, the company seems to have rebounded as India recovered from the lockdown. In India, Samsung adopted aggressive online channel strategy to seize the opportunities arising due to anti-China sentiments, and it has managed to gain the highest market share in the country since 2018. Globally, Samsung's market share has increased by 2 percent since April to August – from 20 percent to 22 percent.

However, the gap between the global smartphone market share of Huawei and Samsung has widened due to decreasing smartphone sales of Huawei. In April, Huawei managed to take Samsung's top spot with 21 percent market share, but it declined to 16 percent in August 2020.

Xiaomi has managed to increase its global market share from 8 percent to 11 percent from April to August 2020, Counterpoint says. The increase is attributed to the company's strong presence in markets like Central Eastern Europe, leveraging Huawei's decrease in market in this region. Apple has kept its momentum steady with 12 percent global smartphone market share since April, all the way down to August 2020. The report says that there should be an increase in sales with the launch of the iPhone 12 series but that rise will only be seen in November. iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2020 sales have helped in keeping things steady till then.

Counterpoint research analyst Minsoo Kang feels that Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and Oppo will see a rise in smartphone market share. “Geopolitical policies and political affairs among nations are affecting the smartphone market in many ways. There will be heightened marketing activity to seize opportunities in these regions and segments. As a result, the concentration of top players in the smartphone market will be much stronger. We see players like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and Oppo benefiting the most.”

Is this the end of the Samsung Galaxy Note series as we know it? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.