Massive iPhone growth sees Apple post record revs as smartphones resurge
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 28 January 2021
2020 may have been a challenging year for the smartphone industry, due mainly to Covid-19, but the business is very much back after a strong fourth quarter with shipments led by a massive uptick in iPhone sales.
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According to analyst Omdia’s latest Smartphone Tracker, the global smartphone market continued its recovery in the second half of 2020, ending the year with 4.7% year-over-year growth in Q4 2020 compared with Q4 2019. Global shipments reached 381.1 million units in the quarter – up from 364.0 million units in Q4 2019. Quarter-on-quarter, shipments increased 6.7% from 357.3 million units in Q3 2020.

This said the analyst was the first time since Q3 2019 that the smartphone market grew year-on-year in a quarter. However, the robust Q4 performance stood in stark contrast to the severe impact of the global pandemic to the smartphone market in Q1 and Q2 2020. For the year, shipments reached 1.294 billion units, down 6.7% from the units shipped in 2019.

The star performer for the fourth quarter was the iPhone which was the driver for a massive quarter for Apple. For the three-month period ended 26 December 2020, the CE giant announced revenues totaling a staggering $111.439 billion, up 21.36% compared with the same time a year ago. The driving force of the revenue surge was the iPhone with $65.597 billion in revenues, an increase of 17.22%. Net income for the quarter was $28.755, a rise of 29.31% on an annual basis.