Samsung is the world's top smartphone company again, report says

It's been an interesting quarter when it comes to smartphone sales.

According to a new report by IDC, Samsung has overtaken Huawei to once again become the world's top smartphone maker. And Xiaomi has overtaken Apple for the first time to become third, with Vivo rounding up the top five.

The switch on the top isn't particularly surprising, given the U.S. trade ban which prohibits American companies to do business with Huawei. IDC says Samsung shipped 80.4 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2020, capturing a 22.7 percent market share. Huawei shipped 51.9 million smartphones, representing a 14.7 percent share — a massive, 22 percent drop compared to the same period last year.

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Credit: IDC

Xiaomi shipped 46.5 million smartphones with a 13.1 percent market share. The Chinese smartphone maker's strong presence in both India and China helped propel it to third place — and above Apple for the first time.

Apple had a good quarter when it comes to everything else except the iPhone, and it shows: IDC says the company shipped 41.6 million phones in the third quarter, giving it a 11.8 percent share. Finally, Vivo shipped 31.5 million units, which gave the company a 8.9 percent market share.

It's been a tough quarter, in many ways, for all of these companies, with the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affecting manufacturing, as well as sales in the U.S., China, and Europe. Apple in particular had to postpone its iPhone 12 launch to October, with some of the new phones not launching until November.

However, the IDC report says that the third quarter of 2020 also saw a big recovery in some key markets, particularly India, with Xiaomi and Samsung capitalizing there. IDC sees 5G as an important driver for future growth, even though the consumer demand is currently still small.