What you need to know
- The iPhone experienced 55.7% quarter-over-quarter growth in the gulf region.
- Growth was led by the iPhone 12 lineup as well as the continued performance of the iPhone 11.
The iPhone, led by the new iPhone 12 lineup, has pulled off some impressive growth in the Gulf region last quarter.
A new report from IDC details that the overall mobile phone market of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region grew 8.2% in Q4 2020. The smartphone market value in the region grew 39.5% when compared to the previous quarter.
While most of the growth in the market was for feature phones, Apple posted a stellar quarter with 55.7% quarter over quarter growth due to the release of the iPhone 12 lineup in the fall.
Akash Balachandran, a senior research analyst at IDC, said that Apple saw great success with its latest iPhone as well as the iPhone 11.
"Apple enjoyed strong demand for the iPhone 12 series in Q4 2020, while its iPhone 11 series continued to perform well in the region ... Shortages in the supply of both the iPhone 12 and certain other models curtailed the maximum growth we could have seen from Apple in Q4 2020."
The overall growth is not expected to last, however. Ramazan Yavuz, a senior research manager at IDC, says that supply constraints will most likely cause a 0.75 decline for Q1 2021.
"Supply constraints will likely continue to hamper growth in the region due to chipset and component shortages across most smartphone brands in the first half year ... However, with supply returning to normal and with the vaccine rollout expected to significantly reduce the possibility of additional lockdowns and spikes in COVID-19 cases, the market is set to see growth return toward the second half of the year.On 5G front, 5G devices accounted for 16.5% of all smartphone shipments across the GCC in Q4 2020. Significant growth is expected in the shipments of 5G-enabled devices in 2021, particularly as they increasingly become available in mid-tier price bands among Android devices."
Apple released the iPhone 12 lineup in a staggered schedule over the course of a month in the fall of 2020.
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