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The Samsung Galaxy S20 series is the best-selling 5G smartphone, based on sales.
That should come as no surprise, considering there isn’t really any other competition right now in the US, in the 5G space. Most of the other smartphones that have launched this year, with 5G, have been plagued with stock issues, due to the global pandemic.
Not to mention the fact that Samsung has three entries here, starting at $999 (actually, it’s on sale starting at $799 right now).
Galaxy S20 sales are lower than its predecessor, but still dominating the 5G space
There have been many reports that sales of the Galaxy S20 series are lower than the Galaxy S10 series were – of course, this pandemic is likely a big reason why – but Samsung is still owning the 5G market right now.
The Galaxy S20+ took 40% of the market, with the Galaxy S20 Ultra 30% and the Galaxy S20 taking 24%. Meaning that there is very little space for the other 5G smartphones out there.
It’s a little surprising to see the Galaxy S20 Ultra coming in second place here actually, instead of the Galaxy S20. Which is a smaller and much more manageable device. Not to mention, a whole lot cheaper.
Samsung has the early lead in 5G, but the real question is whether they can keep it. Especially with the rumors of Apple going all 5G on its iPhone lineup this fall. That is definitely going to take a bite out of Samsung’s market share, given how popular Apple’s iPhones are. But still, this pandemic can have a pretty big impact on what happens this fall, with so many people unemployed currently.
5G is still barely available in the US
As we saw from the Root Metrics report yesterday, 5G access is still almost non-existent in the US. T-Mobile covers the most, with about 20% of the population covered. And that ranges all the way down to Verizon at just 0.5%.
It’s still the early days for 5G, so it makes sense that it is still not widely available, and likely won’t be for quite some time still. Of course, this is similar to how 4G LTE was in the 2010s. It was really not widely available until 2013 or even 2014, depending on the carrier and where you lived.
5G is also the reason why phones are getting more expensive. Also because Qualcomm is forcing its customers to use 5G if it wants the high-end silicon – Snapdragon 865 chipset. So expect phone prices to go up even more next year.