Gartner: Smartphone sales are down 20 percent in the first half of 2020

According to analyst firm Gartner, global smartphone sales fell by 20 percent in the first half of this year. That could be due to the corona pandemic and the measures and lock-downs that accompany it.

In the first six months of 2020, 593.8 million smartphones were sold worldwide, according to Gartner. Last year, it concerned 745.2 million smartphones in the same period, a difference of 151.4 million copies. Gartner published the figures for the second quarter on Tuesday, the analyst firm already published figures for the first quarter of this year in June. In both quarters this was a decrease of about 20 percent.

Android smartphone manufacturers, and Samsung in particular, are seeing the fastest decline in sales. According to data from Gartner, Samsung sold 54.8 million phones in the second quarter of this year. A year earlier this was still 75.1 million. Huawei has weaker losses due to good sales in China. Compared to last year, Huawei sold 6.8 percent fewer smartphones in the past quarter. The global market share of Samsung and Huawei was almost flat in the past quarter, according to Gartner.

The sale of iPhones seems to be recovering faster than Android smartphones. In the past quarter, Apple sold 38.4 million units, nearly as many as the 38.5 million units in the same period last year, according to Gartner. Gartner attributes this to good sales of iPhones in China, where the corona crisis no longer has a major impact. The iPhone SE would also increase sales.