(Yicai Global) Jan. 29 -- Xiaomi leapt into third place in the worldwide smartphone market in the fourth quarter last year, with 11.2 percent market share, supplanting Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies which had ranked third in the fourth quarter 2019 but has since been brought low by US sanctions and the recent sale of its budget brand Honor, according to a recent report.

Xiaomi sold 43.3 million mobile phones in the three months ended Dec. 31 last year, a leap of 32 percent from the same period last year, according to US market research firm International Data Corporation on Jan. 27.

Compatriot Oppo Mobile Telecommunications seized fourth spot with a gain of 10.7 percent to 33.8 million units, giving the Dongguan-based company a market share of 8.8 percent, Massachusetts-based IDC said.

Huawei, by contrast, came in fifth with shipments plunging 42.4 percent year on year to 32.2 million phones.

US tech giant Apple was once more leader of the pack, commanding a 23.4 percent market share, thanks to the launch of its new iPhone 12 series. The California-based firm delivered 90.1 million units, a jump of 22.2 percent, elbowing aside South Korea’s Samsung to take first place.

Samsung dropped to second place with a 19.1 percent share of the market. It sold 73.9 million units, a jump of 6.2 percent.

Overall, handset sales were up 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter last year from the same period in 2019 to 385.9 million units, but shipments for the year were down 5.9 percent to 1.29 billion phones, according to IDC.

Over the course of 2020, Samsung sold the most phones, followed by Apple and then Huawei. Beijing-based Xiaomi came fourth and China’s Vivo Communication Technology came fifth. Respectively they held, 20.6 percent, 15.9 percent, 14.6 percent, 11.4 percent and 8.6 percent market share.

Seoul-based Samsung’s 2020 sales dropped 9.8 percent year on year to 266.7 million phones, while Apple’s deliveries gained 7.9 percent to 106.1 million units. Huawei’s shipments dived 21.5 percent to 189 million units, Xiaomi gained 17.6 percent to 147.8 million units and Dongguan-based Vivo grew 1 percent to 1.1 million units.

Editor: Kim Taylor