San Francisco (CNN Business) The world's biggest smartphone maker is widening its lead over rivals in the race to put 5G devices in customers' hands.

Samsung sold 6.7 million 5G smartphones in 2019 and now accounts for more than half the global market, it announced Thursday. The South Korean tech giant exceeded its own expectations, having set a sales target for the year of around 4 million.

Samsung SSNLF Apple AAPL has first mover advantage when it comes to smartphones that run on the new high-speed networks, beating its rivals to the punch when it rolled out the Galaxy S10 5G for Verizon customers in May last year., on the other hand, is not expected to have a 5G-enabled smartphone until the end of 2020.

Verizon was also the first carrier to offer a 5G-compatible phone when it launched its moto z3 smartphone. However, that phone required an accessory that attached to the back of the device to access the 5G network.

Samsung has since released four other 5G smartphones under its flagship Galaxy series — the Note 10 5G, Note 10+ 5G, A90 5G and the Galaxy Fold 5G. The company will also release its first 5G tablet, the Galaxy Tab S6 5G, to customers in Korea in the first quarter of 2020.

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