5G wireless technology has been one of the selling features for smartphones in 2020. We have seen several offerings from phone making companies including Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei — what they all have in common is the fifth generation technology. Some companies like Huawei had already started making 5G phones as early as 2019 but this year reality has set in when it comes to the world’s top-selling 5G smartphone in 2020.
Only two weeks after its launch, Apple’s iPhone 12 became the world’s best-selling fifth-generation technology smartphone. This is according to data from Counterpoint Research’s Market Pulse service, which showed that the new handset had accounted for 16% of all 5G smartphones sold in October 2020.
In the second place, the iPhone 12 Pro was the second-best seller – with 8% of the market share for that month. Combined, these two smartphones captured a quarter of the total 5G smartphone market during this period.
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Coming in the third position was the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G, which managed 4% of sales. It was followed by two Huawei smartphones – the Nova 7 5G and P40 5G.
Notably, for the period between January and October 2020, the iPhone 12 claimed the 7th position of all fifth-generation technology smartphones sold.
The graph below shows the market shares of each of the top 10 selling 5G smartphones in October.
The success of 5G iPhones
According to Counterpoint’s Research the iPhone 12’s impressive performance is due to several factors – including larger pent-up demand for the 5G upgrade, especially within the iOS base. They said;
“This was complemented by strong carrier promos, especially in the US, which accounted for over one-third of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro sales for the month. All carriers were offering the iPhone 12 for $0 through a mix of the trade-in and unlimited plans,” the researchers added.
In addition, other iPhone users in China and Japan also showed strong initial demand for the iPhone 12 series. The iPhone 12 also has a wider market coverage than most other 5G models, which have a regional presence. It is available in more than 140 countries.
The researchers noted that demand for the iPhone 12 range will likely remain high in Q4 2020, particularly during the festive season thanks to 5G.
