Apple's iPhone 12 Pro range to grow smartphone sales 50% worldwide

According to research by Digitimes, Apple is expected to ship in excess of 60 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2021. This would make Apple the top smartphone seller over the this quarter and the last of 2020.

Total shipments for the two quarters, are expected to be over 150 million iPhones. That's up 38% year on year, for Apple.

Digitimes estimates that this success for Apple means that overall the global smartphone market will reach 340 million units in the first quarter of 2021. That's a a 50% year on year increase for the whole market.

The same research estimates that across the whole of 2021, over 600 million 5G smartphones will be shipped. For comparison, 2020 saw 280 million 5G smartphones sold.

Apple launched its 5G iPhone 12 range in late 2020, so part of the 2021 increase is down to the availability of these smartphones. According to the Digitimes research, the rise is also attributable to Chinese manufacturers increasing production to capture market share previously owned by Huawei.

Separately, analysts have claimed that Apple's iPhone 12 is the highest-selling model in the 5G range in the US. And internationally, that Apple has doubled its iPhone sales in India.