In terms of sheer volumes China and the USA lead in 5G smartphone sales. But in key Western European markets, consumers are fast adopting 5G smartphones.
Switzerland, Germany and UK are leaders in 5G as a share of total smartphones sold in 2020. The rapid adoption of 5G smartphones by consumers in Western Europe present an opportunity for vendors.
Samsung and Apple are taking the lion’s share of total 5G smartphone volumes but aggressive competition from Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi as well as other Chinese vendors will reorder share in 2021. 5G smartphones are a wedge which will allow these vendors to grow in 2021 and beyond.

The full report, Global Smartphone Sales Forecast by Technology for 88 Countries to 2025, is published by Strategy Analytics’ Emerging Device Technologies service, details of which can be found here.