The value of these units was put at US$27.7 billion (A$37.64 billion) by IDC which pointed out that there had been year-on-year falls in these figures for the first two quarters of 2020, with the market dropping by about 8% in each quarter.

For Europe, the smartphone shipments came to 53.2 million units, with the average selling price being US$17 higher than in the second quarter at an RRP of US$392 before sales taxes.

Though European nations went into a lockdown towards the end of the quarter, shops were largely open early during the third
quarter.

"As anticipated, consumers took advantage of the opportunity to get out and about again, and that benefitted the phone market as footfall in retail phone outlets rose again," said Marta Pinto, research manager at IDC EMEA.

"As far as brands were concerned in Western Europe, Apple did well, despite none of the new iPhone 12 5G models being on sale during the quarter due to the later-than-usual Apple launch."

IDC said the most noticeable trend among Android devices in Europe was the further decline of Huawei, with its smartphone share, at 12.4%, being little more than half that a year ago.

Samsung had a strong quarter across Europe, and its share rose above a third of the market to 37.1% in 3Q.

"It was clearly one of the brands that benefitted from Huawei's retrenchment," said Simon Baker, program director at IDC EMEA. "Another was Huawei's Chinese rival Xiaomi, which recorded its highest share in Europe at 18.1%.

"At the moment the Android market continues to show consolidation, but in the next few quarters a number of other Chinese brands that have been waiting in the wings, among them OPPO, vivo, realme, and OnePlus, are expected to become more prominent."

5G phone shipments had fallen slightly during the third quarter, with the real takeoff expected in the current quarter with the arrival of the new iPhone 12 range, according to Pinto.

But given the increase in lockdown measures in the final quarter, IDC said it expected the overall EMEA smartphone market in 4Q to be relatively subdued and not to grow over 4Q19.

Looking at 2020 as a whole, however, despite the disruption of the coronavirus crisis, the EMEA smartphone market is forecast to come close to 400 million units for the first time, and to be slightly bigger than in 4Q19.