Samsung all but drops off of the top 10 best-selling smartphones in 1st half of 2020

Ben Schoon | Sep 2 2020 - 8:27 am PT

It’s no secret that Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers have been struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the bad news for Samsung specifically doesn’t seem to stop. In a new report, the top 10 smartphones for the first half of 2020 have been revealed and Samsung has all but disappeared.

Omdia reports that, in the first half of 2020, the top-selling smartphone worldwide was Apple’s iPhone 11. That comes as absolutely no shock, especially considering at the same point in 2019, the iPhone XR topped the charts.

In 2019, though, Apple’s top seller was followed by four Samsung smartphones, all mid-range models. Those were, specifically, the Galaxy A10, A50, J2 Core, and A30. Oppo’s A5 sat in fourth place and Xiaomi helped round out the list with its Redmi 6A and Note 7.

The results in 2020 are much, much different. Samsung still takes the second slot with its popular Galaxy A51 pushing 11.4 million units so far this year, but Samsung doesn’t make a single other appearance in the top 10. Instead, Xiaomi’s Redmi takes up four slots and Apple makes up the rest of the list with iPhone 11 Pro/Max, iPhone XR, and the iPhone SE.

The addition of iPhone SE (2020) to Apple’s portfolio in April of this year helped the company position four models in the global top 10 list. iPhone SE, a new budget iPhone, shipped 8.7 million units in the second quarter – good enough for 5th in first half shipment volume.
On the other hand, only one Samsung model made the top 10 this year. Like last year, a mid-end smartphone, the Galaxy A51, took second place with a total of 11.4 million units shipped. This is a significant shift for Samsung, as this list featured four of Samsung’s models last year. No Samsung flagship device reached the top 10.

For Samsung, these results have got to hurt. While the company’s flagship Android smartphones are absolutely floundering amid the pandemic, Apple’s high-end iPhone 11 Pro models are doing great and the super-affordable iPhone SE, just even better.

Hopefully these disheartening results will be reflected in next year’s prices.