iPhone Sales Revenue Plunged by $8.5bn YoY, Global Smartphone Market Share Dropped to 11.7% in Q3

As one of the world’s largest companies with a market cap of over $2trn, Apple derives a huge chunk of its revenue from iPhone sales. However, Apple’s most profitable product witnessed a significant revenue drop in 2020, as the COVID-19 crisis knocked down global smartphone shipments.

According to data presented by Finaria, iPhone sales in the nine months of 2020 generated $81.7bn in revenue, an $8.5bn drop compared to the same period a year ago.

iPhone Sales Generated 40% of Apple`s Total Revenue in Q3, a 20% Drop YoY

Initially released in 2007, iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone industry and popularized the use of smartphones. Soon after its release, it became Apple’s most successful product, consistently generating more than half its international sales.

In the second quarter of the FY 2019, or between January and March last year, iPhone sales generated more than $31bn in revenue, revealed Apple`s earnings report.

In the first quarter of the fiscal year 2020, or between September and December 2019, this figure peaked at over $55.9bn, accounting for 60.9% of Apple`s overall revenue. Services ranked as the second-largest segment with a 13.85% market share in this period. Wearables, Mac, and iPad sales followed with 10.9%, 7.8%, and 6.51% share, respectively.

However, with millions of consumers cutting down their budgets and prioritizing spending amid the COVID-19 crisis, global demand for new smartphones has been crushed in the first half of 2020.

As the initial wave of the pandemic hit the global smartphone industry, iPhone’s revenue plunged by 48% quarter-over-quarter to $28.9bn between January and March.

Statistics show the negative trend continued in the second quarter of 2020, with iPhone sales falling to $26.4bn or 44.26% of total Apple’s revenue. In the next three months, the iPhone’s revenue share dropped by another 3.36%.

Apple’s Global Smartphone Market Share Plunged in 2020

Having a broad family of products, Apple competes with different companies in different markets. In the global smartphone market, Apple’s largest competitors are Samsung and Huawei.

The IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker data showed that Samsung represents the world’s largest smartphone vendor with almost 23% market share and 80.4 million shipped units in the third quarter, a 37% jump since the beginning of the year.

Huawei ranked second with 51.9 million shipments and a 15% market share between July and September, down from 17.7% in the first quarter of the year.

Xiaomi’s market share rose from 10.7% in the first quarter to 13.15% in the third quarter of 2020. The Chinese smartphone maker shipped 46.5 million units between July and September, up from 29.5 million in the first quarter of the year.

The IDC data revealed Apple’s market share in the global smartphone market dropped this year, falling from 13.31% in the first quarter of 2020 to 11.7% in September. The tech giant shipped 41.6 million smartphones in the third quarter of the year, almost twice less than the market leader Samsung.