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With Huawei shipments continuing to decline and the recent announcement that LG is exiting the smartphone business, market share is up for grabs.

Impacted by the pandemic, the tablet market reached shipment levels not seen since the fourth quarter of 2017 when the total was 49.9 million.

Tech titan Apple delivered a phenomenal performance in 4Q20, returning to the number 1 position with 90.1 million devices shipped, driven by the success of the iPhone 12 series.

The surge was driven by seasonality, new product launches, and the global pandemic. New products from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and others helped renew interest in popular categories such as smartwatches and hearables.

AMD is debuting its latest GPU offering lineup in tandem with the reveal of the refreshed 27-inch iMac, which Apple dubs the “most powerful and capable iMac” to date. The Radeon Pro 5000 GPUs will bring in more efficient transistors, GDDR6 memory, and RDNA architecture, all elements focusing on content creation.

For the full year 2019, the tablet market shrank 1.5% year-over-year as global shipments totaled 144 million units.

Samsung managed to maintain the top spot for the full year 2019. Despite Huawei's ongoing challenges outside of China and a notable drop in 4Q19 shipments, it did manage to overtake Apple for the number 2 position overall in 2019.

The report was concluded way before the US government imposed trade sanctions on Huawei, triggering seismic consequences in the mobile tech industry.

With a starting price of $1,099, this year?s 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max costs consumers $100 more than the last year?s 5.8-inch iPhone X.

The arrival of Huawei in the second position marks the first quarter since 2Q10 where Apple has not been the number one or two smartphone company in terms of market share.