• by Chuck Martin , March 5, 2020

Sales of smartphones declined 1% globally last year, according to a new Gartner forecast.

With sales of 296 million devices, Samsung led the market, followed by Huawei at 240 million and Apple at 193 million.

Samsung accounted for 19% market share, Huawei 16% and Apple 13%.

“2019 ended a little better than expected, due to slightly improved performances from North America and emerging Asia/Pacific,” stated Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. “India, which sold 151.9 million units, overtook the U.S. to become the number two country for smartphone sales in 2019.”

China was the market leader, with sales of 391 million smartphones over the full year.

Gartner expects Apple will launch a 5G phone in the third quarter.