A total of 31.9 million smartphones were shipped in the United States in the second quarter of 2020, a 5 percent decline year on year, but an 11 percent increase from the previous quarter, market research firm Canalys said in a report on Tuesday.
Resumption of Chinese factory operations at the end of March and stores reopening in May and June were key contributors to sequential market growth, the report said.
This has also driven up the share of China-made smartphones in the US. The report said around 70 percent of smartphones shipped in the US in the second quarter of 2020 were made in China, up from 60 percent the previous quarter.
Apple and Samsung accounted for seven out of every 10 devices sold, and Apple established a new domestic record in the second quarter, shipping 15.0 million iPhones.
It shipped 15 percent more of its flagship iPhone 11 than last year’s best-seller, the iPhone XR.
With the launch of the iPhone SE, Apple’s quarterly market share ballooned to 47 percent.
Samsung matched 2019 shipment levels, but its fortunes reversed. It shipped 59 percent fewer Galaxy S20 5G series handsets than S10 series models in Q2 2019.
Rampant point-of-sale closures immediately followed Q1 channel fill, and Samsung found itself leaning heavily on its low-end Galaxy A10e and A20 devices to prop up shipments.
The average price of a smartphone in the US hit US$503, 10 percent lower than in Q2 2019.
As the coronavirus pandemic forced consumers to stay at home, 5G adoption in the US failed to take off, Canalys Analyst Vincent Thielke said.
Store closures and virus fears limited interaction with demonstration models, tight consumer budgets further constrained spending power, and with scarce 5G network coverage in American suburbia, consumers saw plenty of reasons to buy a 4G device instead, Thielke said.
