Samsung is now the number one phone maker even in the U.S.

Nov 30, 2020 10:11 GMT  ·  By

2020 has been a really crazy year, there’s no doubt about it, and with one month still left to go until we can finally scream “we did it” and start working for a better 2021, we can finally look back and see how this awful pandemic has changed everything out there.

Samsung certainly knows that dealing with a global health issue is quite a challenge and the impact it can have on a business is huge. And it’s all because the Galaxy S20, one of the company’s latest flagships, launched at the worst possible time, as the device was announced in February and then hit the shelves in March.

In other words, the Galaxy S20 went on sale at a time when the world entered lockdown, so it goes without saying few people were still interested in smartphones given a terrible virus was expanding to every little corner of the planet.

Unsurprisingly, sales of the Galaxy S20 haven’t met Samsung’s expectations, and now the company is working on resolving the whole thing by bringing the Galaxy 21 to the market earlier than anticipated. The next Galaxy S will therefore go live in mid-January, according to the rumor mill, while the actual sales would start later the same month.

This is the solution Samsung has found to counter the declining sales and the potential growth the iPhone 12 could experience, especially given Apple’s device launched at a time when many countries were no longer in lockdown despite the second wave already looming everywhere.

Samsung tried different approaches during all these months, including new product releases like the Galaxy Note20 and the Galaxy S20 FE, but bringing the S21 to the market earlier than anticipated is seen as a more effective way to deal with this madness.

And yet, it looks like Samsung’s sales recorded an important recovery in the July-September period, at least in some specific markets, with the South Koreans eventually managing to overtake long-term rival Apple on its very own playground.

In other words, yes, Samsung’s sales in the United States surpassed Apple’s in the said period, as the company accounted for 33.7 percent of the smartphones sold in the country during the third quarter. This is impressive, to say the least, especially when looking at the 6.7 percent that Samsung recorded in the United States, all compared to the same period in 2019 when the world wasn’t living the nightmare if did this year.

The data shared by Strategy Analytics reveals that Apple wasn’t that far behind, as it continues to control 30.2 percent of the sales in the country, but this is the first time in three years when Samsung actually manages to overtake its rival. And given it happens during such a difficult time, it’s now believed the South Koreans would manage to increase the gap next year when its new products would finally go live in better market conditions.

Samsung is working around the clock on a series of major surprises for the 2021 lineup, and in addition to the Galaxy S21, the company is also planning to unveil new foldable smartphones.

One product that’s still uncertain at this point is the Galaxy Note21, which may or may not see the daylight in the summer of the next year, depending on who you ask. What’s almost certain is the Galaxy S21 Ultra would come with support for the S Pen, and this seems to suggest that sooner or later, Samsung would actually discontinue the Galaxy Note once and for all.

But people close to the matter said recently this won’t happen in 2021, as the Note21 is still on the table for a summer release. Until this happens, however, the S21 is the next big launch due in January.