Samsung Beats Apple To Regain Top Spot In Smartphone Shipments

Samsung has ruled the global smartphone market for years; however, recently, the company lost its top spot to iPhone maker Apple. Now, it seems Samsung has regained its position after a brief setback. 

In 2023, Apple managed to dethrone Samsung for the first time by shipping more smartphones on a global scale. It wasn’t a huge difference, with Apple going ahead by just 4%, but it was definitely noticeable. Besides, Apple’s Q4 sales performance gave it an edge over Samsung in 2023.

But things seem to have changed now. As per the data from Counterpoint Research shared by The Korea Times, Samsung has overtaken Apple by a narrow margin to start 2024. Samsung shipped 19.69 million smartphones in Q1, dethroning Apple which shipped 17.41 million units. Samsung, as per the report, currently has a 20% global smartphone market share, while Apple’s share has dropped to 18%.

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Apple Lost Ground In The US Smartphone Market

Samsung’s share of smartphone shipments during Q1 was 34% in Europe and 36% in the US. This could be due to the success of the Galaxy S24 flagship. On the other hand, Apple’s share during the same period plummeted to 48%.

As per IDC, Samsung is currently at 20.8% of the global market, whereas Apple has dropped to 17.3%. As a whole, the smartphone market in Q1 2024 grew by around 8%, while Xiaomi and Transsion witnessed significant YoY growth.

It seems that Samsung has had a great first quarter in 20-24, something the company will surely want to take forward, but that will come down to the coming months.

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Apple Shipped More Devices Than Samsung In 2023

Samsung was a frontrunner in the global smartphone market for a long time, but it lost the top spot to Apple in 2023. Apple managed to ship more devices in 2023 compared to Samsung.

As per the data gathered by IDC and Canalys, Samsung lost its title to Apple in 2023, as it shipped fewer smartphones in a year for the first time ever. Samsung and Apple have been taking on each other for the top spot for a long time, with Apple often taking a lead for a quarter at a time, but eventually losing to Samsung year-on-year.

Of course, Samsung had to work hard to earn the top spot back. Apple shipped nearly 234 million smartphones in 2023, while Samsung managed to ship around 226 million. It was a difference of less than 4%, and in overall market share, it puts Apple at 20.1% while Samsung closely followed at 19.4%.