Smartphone sales drop 20% in Q2 due to coronavirus pandemic, analyst says

From CNET: Global smartphone sales dropped 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020, according to a Tuesday report by Gartner. The coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the phone industry, the research firm says, with worldwide sales dropping to 295 million units.

Out of the top five smartphone vendors, Samsung saw the biggest drop in sales. The company sold around 55 million smartphone in the second quarter, a decline of 27.1% year over year. The company released its Galaxy S20 lineup earlier this year.

"The COVID-19 pandemic continued to negatively affect Samsung's performance in the second quarter of 2020," Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner, said in a statement. "Demand for its flagship S Series smartphones did little to revive its smartphone sales globally."

Meanwhile, Apple's sales were almost flat year-over-year, Gartner said. Huawei's year-over-year phone sales also fell 6.8%, but the 27.4% quarter-over-quarter growth it saw led it to nearly tie with Samsung for the number one spot.

Last month, tech market analysts Canalys, Counterpoint and IDC said Huawei shipped more phones worldwide than any other vendor for the first time in the second quarter of 2020. The analysts credited the coronavirus pandemic with giving the Chinese company the edge.

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