According to the latest North America Monthly Channel Share Tracker from Counterpoint Research, Apple’s iPhone remains as popular as ever.
Despite smartphone sales falling 36% year-over-year in Q2 2020 as carrier stores shut down during COVID-19, Apple and Samsung continued to dominate sales in Canada. Both brands accounted for 86% of total smartphone purchases during Q2, up 5% compared to the year-ago quarter.
When it came to volume sales in Q2, Apple saw a 24% decline, while Samsung sales dropped 41%.
“The majority of carrier stores remained shut through first half of the quarter, especially those in shopping malls. The impact of COVID-19 on retail was more severe in British Columbia initially and later moved to Quebec and Ontario. We also witnessed the lowest carrier churn rates we have seen in a very long time,” said Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint in an issued statement to iPhone in Canada.
“This prompted carriers to quickly align with a more online-driven sales strategy, which did see a significant spike. Customers refrained from making new purchases and preferred to isolate at home,” added Bhatia.
“Apple was more resilient to declines compared to other brands. Samsung lost ground in the premium category while it gained slightly in the mid-range price segment with the new A-series models doing well,” said Counterpoint’s North America Research Director, Jeff Fieldhack, who added Samsung was able to generate more sales later in the quarter due to “heavy promotional discounts.”
According to Counterpoint, Apple took seven spots out of the top 10 best-selling smartphones in Q2, while the iPhone 11 is still the best-selling smartphone in the quarter. Samsung models took the other three spots in the best-selling list, with the older Galaxy S10 outselling the newer S20 line up.
LG sales fell 60% compared to the year-ago quarter, while ThinQ models were “moderate but steady” at Bell and Telus stores. Rogers stores sold more Google phones with limited supply (the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL was discontinued last week).
Meanwhile, Motorola has a presence at Videotron and Freedom Mobile, separating itself from incumbent carriers.
Counterpoint says its research is now “closely tracking the Canadian mobile devices market at model level across all major carrier channels in Canada.”
