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Samsung says it shipped 6.7 million 5G smartphones in 2019

It is expected that Samsung will release a 5G tablet at the start of this year.
Written by Cho Mu-Hyun, Contributing Writer

Samsung Electronics shipped over 6.7 million 5G smartphones in 2019, the company has announced.

The tech giant was the first to launch a 5G smartphone in the world, the Galaxy S10 5G, which coincided with South Korea's rollout of its 5G networks in April last year. 

Since then, Samsung has launched four more 5G offerings: The Galaxy Note 10 5G, Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G, Galaxy A90 5G, and Galaxy Fold 5G.

According to Counterpoint Research, the company controlled 54% of the global 5G smartphone market as of November. However, 5G smartphones only accounted for 1% of worldwide smartphone sales in 2019.

But this number is expected to grow by almost  17 times over in 2020, the research firm said, with 5G smartphones to contribute around 18% of total smartphone shipments.

"For Samsung, 2020 will be the year of Galaxy 5G and we are excited to bring 5G to even more device categories and introduce people to mobile experiences they never thought possible," Roh Tae-moon, head of research at Samsung's mobile business, said in a statement.

The company said it will also launch the Galaxy Tab S6 tablet with 5G capabilities in South Korea during the first quarter of this year.

While Samsung leads the 5G smartphone market, the 6.7 million 5G devices it sold are only a small portion of its total smartphone shipments. As the world's largest smartphone maker, the company shipped 318 million smartphones in 2017 and 292 million in 2018.

As more countries are expected to make 5G commercially available this year, Samsung has been working to cement its foothold in the next-generation network faster than rivals with its launch of various 5G products, from smartphones, chips, to network equipment over the past year.

In November, the tech conglomerate unveiled 5G modem with 5.1Gbps download speed for devices set to be released in 2020.

Last month, the company clinched a supply deal with Canadian telco Videotron for LTE-A and 5G equipment for the latter's network.

According to IHS Markit, in the third quarter, Huawei was the largest 5G equipment vendor with 30% market share, as Samsung following closely with 23%.

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