Global Smartphone sales reach 296mn units

New Delhi: The global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 295 million units, a decline of 20.4 per cent in the second quarter this year owing to the pandemic as Samsung retained the top spot with selling nearly 55 million units, a new Gartner report said on Tuesday.

Samsung and Huawei moved into a virtual tie for the top spot as Huawei ended up selling 54 million units in the June quarter. Among the top five smartphone vendors, Samsung experienced the largest decline in sales while Apple's smartphone sales with 38 million units were nearly flat (year-over-year). Although Huawei also declined in smartphone sales year-over-year, it experienced 27.4 per cent growth, quarter-over-quarter.

"The improved situation in China saw demand recovering quarter-over-quarter. Travel restrictions, retail closures and more prudent spending on nonessential products during the pandemic led to the second consecutive quarterly decline in smartphone sales this year," said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. Samsung saw a decline of 27.1 per cent year on year. "Demand for its flagship S Series smartphones did little to revive its smartphone sales globally," Gupta said.