The iPhone 11 was the best-selling smartphone in the last quarter, even as Samsung wrested the top spot from Apple in the US market for the first time in three years. According to market analysis and research firm, Canalys, the South Korean tech firm also regained its lead globally, replacing Huawei, which has been having a tough time under mounting US sanctions that is now forcing the company to sell off its Honor brand.
The data further suggests that the iPhone SE (2020) was the second best-selling smartphone during the same period, even though it trailed its bigger and pricier stablemate by a distance. While the former reportedly shipped around 16 million units during Q3, 2020, the latter only managed to move around 10 million, as can be seen from the graph below. As many as five Samsung smartphones making their way into the top-10 as the company made a forceful comeback following a couple of slow quarters.
Interestingly, none of Samsung’s flagship S-series and Note-series devices made their way to the top ten, with most of the entrants representing the company’s mid-range A-series lineup. Xiaomi also made multiple appearances on the list, thanks largely to the popularity of its Redmi devices. The Redmi Note 9, Redmi 9 and Redmi 9A were apparently the best-selling devices from the company during the period.
Overall, the global smartphone market picked up in Q3 following a couple of relatively slow quarters, thanks to the pandemic. According to Canalys, worldwide shipments reached 348.0 million units, which was still 1% lower than the same period last year. Samsung grew 2% YoY to regain the lead with 80.2 million units, while Huawei slipped into second place with 51.7 million units – a decline of a 23%.
