While Pixel sales fell off a cliff in late 2019 because of the Pixel 4, the low-cost Pixel 3a helped saved the day, according to IDC. Well, within reason, that is.

“Google continues to expand the Pixel portfolio and sales are growing,” IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo tweeted. “In 2019, shipments grew 52 percent [year-over-year] to reach the [lineup’s] highest volume ever, with strong performances in the USA, Western Europe, and Japan. It now ships more units than OnePlus, but it is still far from reaching [the top 10].”

In May, we learned that the Pixel 4 family, which was released late in the year, sold horribly, and less than the Pixel 3 family from a year earlier. How horribly? Just 2 million units in its first six months of availability.

According to IDC, however, Google sold 7.2 million Pixel handsets in 2019 overall. So 5.2 million of them were non-Pixel 4s. Most of which were almost certainly the Pixel 3a.

7.2 million in annual sales is not a big number compared to the market leaders. In just the first quarter, for example, IDC reported that Samsung sold 72 million handsets, while Huawei sold 59 million and Apple sold 36.4 million. Even companies like Vivo and Oppo, which most Americans have likely never heard of, sold over 20 million smartphones in that one quarter alone.

Tagged with Google Pixel