Benzinga | Nov 30, 2020 06:20AM EST

Apple Trailed Xiaomi In Q3 Sales With 40.6M Units: Gartner

According to Gartner, worldwide smartphone sales fell 5.7% year-over-year to 366 million units in the third quarter of 2020.

Xiaomi Corporation's (OTC: XIACF) market share in the smartphone segment for third-quarter 2020 improved 34.9% YoY to 12.1%, claiming the third spot by knocking Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL).

In October, multiple research reports disclosed that Asian smartphone makers ranked among the top three companies in this business segment, which was corroborated with the latest by Gartner.

What Happened Xiaomi's 12.1% market share in Q3 2020 ranks third, trailing behind market leaders Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (OTC: SSNLF) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. with 22% and 14.1%, respectively.

Chinese phone maker and internet company Xiaomi has outpaced the fabled iPhone maker in the September quarter. Apple sold approximately 40.6 million units representing an 11.1% market share, a 0.6% drop from last year.

Annette Zimmermann, Research Vice President at Gartner, said that Apple's iPhone 12 delayed shipments led to its decline.

Why Does It Matter Gartner research claims that despite the push for 5G adoption, smartphone sales are lagging compared to 2019 figures.

Anshul Gupta, A Senior Research Director with Gartner, claimed that this moderate bump in sales resulted from a pent up demand from previous quarters. Gupta also opined that fears of a fresh wave of COVID-19 are limiting consumer spend on non-essentials.

Price Action AAPL closed 0.48% higher at $116.59,on Friday. XIACF closed 1.01% lower at $3.42 on Friday.