Apple recently overtook Samsung Electronics as the world’s largest smartphone seller, achieving a 20% market share in 2023, as reported by International Data Corp.
Samsung finished the year with a 19.4% market share, trailing behind Apple. China’s Xiaomi, Oppo, and Transsion followed, according to preliminary data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
This shift in rankings occurred in a challenging year, characterized by consumers slowing down smartphone upgrades and opting for less expensive models amid high inflation and economic uncertainties.
The slower recovery in China, the biggest smartphone market, also impacted overall phone sales.
Apple and Transsion, the companies behind the Tecno, Infinix, and Itel brands, were the only top five smartphone vendors to see sales growth last year, despite the overall market shrinking by 3.2% to 1.17 billion units, reaching a ten-year low.
Nabila Popal, research director of IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team, noted that while low-end Android manufacturers like Transsion and Xiaomi saw significant growth in the latter half of 2023, especially in emerging markets, Apple emerged as the clear winner.
Samsung’s phone shipments dropped by 13.6%, in contrast to Apple’s iPhone shipments, which rose by 3.7% last year, according to IDC’s data.
Focusing on the mid to high-end segments for profitability, Samsung lost its footing in the low-end market, according to Amber Liu from Canalys.
Apple faces competitive pressure in China from a revitalized Huawei and other budget Chinese brands. To attract customers, the iPhone manufacturer has offered discounts of up to 5% on certain models in China.
As of Friday, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable public company, amid increasing Wall Street concerns about the demand for Apple’s iPhones and other premium products.
