Apple Grows Smartphone Market Share Even As Overall Market Declines At Record Pace
May 4, 2020 04:15 PM ET (BZ Newswire) -- News
The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the smartphone market, as reflected by the 11.7% year-over-year decline in overall shipments in the first quarter, according to the International Data Corporation.
Tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), though not immune to the downturn, largely maintained its year-over-year shipment numbers and also grew its market share.
Pandemic Disrupts Smartphone Supply, Demand
Overall global smartphone shipments came in at 275.8 million in the first quarter, marking the biggest year-over-year decline on record, according to the IDC report.
Unsurprisingly, China led the decline with a 20.3% slump. The quarter saw the onset of the pandemic in China and a ubsequent lockdown in the nation to curb the coronavirus. Western Europe and the U.S. were close behind, with declines of 18.3% and 16.1%, respectively.
As the quarter progressed, supply chain issues in China also hurt global shipments, IDC said.
"While the supply chain in China started to recover at end of the quarter, as IDC expected, major economies around the world went into complete lockdown causing consumer demand to flatline," Nabila Popal, research director at the IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said in the report.
See also: Apple's 'China Growth Renaissance' Unlikely To Be Hurt By Coronavirus, Analyst Says
Apple Fares Better Among Top Smartphone Producers
Apple shipped 36.7 million units of smartphones in the first quarter, according to the IDC's estimates.
This represented a mere 0.4% year-over-year drop. The Cupertino, California-based company expanded its market share from 11.8% in the first quarter of 2019 to 13.3% in the first quarter of 2020.
In comparison, South Korean electronics giant Samsung shipped 58.3 million units, translating to 21.4% of the total market. This represents a decline from the 23% share Samsung held in the same quarter of last year.
Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie.
