Apple and Samsung reign supreme in Q2 2020 US smartphone shipments but 70% of the 31.9 million shipped devices were made in China

The US company Apple and the South Korean OEM Samsung have managed to occupy the top two places in the table for the most smartphones shipped in the US for Q2 2020. Apple shifted a new record of 15 million iPhones (47.1% market share), thus enjoying +10% growth over the year, while Samsung’s total of 7.4 million units (23.2%) was a slight decrease on the year by -1%. Fellow South Korean firm LG snagged 11.0% of the market share, followed by the Chinese companies Lenovo (6.9%) and TCL (4.0%).

Although the Canalys report certainly looks bright for a US company, in this case Apple, it also points out that around 70% of the total smartphones shipped in the United States for Q2 2020 were actually made in China. It has been estimated that 31.9 million units were shipped for the quarter, so 22.33 million of those were assembled in Chinese factories. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of the US economy has apparently contributed to American consumers looking for more-affordable smartphone solutions.

While Samsung and LG don’t have to rely so much on assembly plants in China, Apple and the other OEMs listed in the Q2 2020 table do depend on Chinese manufacturing output. The China-United States trade war is still ongoing and is prone to unpredictable fluctuations. Canalys believes the sub-US$400 sector will become more important as the average price of a smartphone in the US sold in Q2 2020 hits US$503 (-10% down from Q2 2019). This is a vital and large part of the smartphone market that Chinese OEMs have excelled in supplying over recent years, and it might force Samsung and especially Apple to reinvigorate their efforts here too.