It was back in 2010 when Apple was on top in terms of global smartphone sales volume. Samsung has been on top for various reasons but it seems like we are noticing a power shift. Both Canalys and IDC estimates suggest Apple has officially dethroned Samsung from its topmost position. It happened after Apple took a bigger chunk of the pie at 20.1% compared to Samsung’s 19.4% as per IDC.
According to IDC, Apple shipped over 234.6 million units in 2023 worldwide and reported a yearly growth of 3.7%. The market share rose from 18.8% in 2022 to 20.1% in 2023. Coming to the second position, Samsung’s total worldwide shipment in 2023 was 226.6 million units with a market share of 19.4%. In 2022, it reported shipment of 262.2 million units (more than 30mn units from Apple) taking the topmost position at 21.7% in market share.
Similarly, Xiaomi is in the third position (no doubt) at 145.9 million units shipped in 2023 compared to 153.2 mn in 2022 reporting a -4.7 drop in market share this year. Oppo also experienced a similar decline, selling 103.1 million units in 2023, a 9.9% drop from 2022’s 114.4 million..
Finally, we have Transsion which took a massive Y-o-Y growth at 30.8% reporting a total shipment of 94.9 million units in 2023 compared to 72.6 million in 2022. Its current market share stands at 8.1%. For the unversed, Transsion is the parent company of smartphone brands such as Infinix, Itel, and Tecno.
The global smartphone shipments dropped by 3.2% YoY totalling 1.17 billion units in 2023 compared to 1.205 billion units in 2022. IDC targets macroeconomic challenges and high inventory during the commencement of the year among other reasons behind the drop. However, it also points towards the recovery that the market is making especially in the second half of this year with more expected to come.
Canalys’s preliminary smartphone market pulse in Q4 2023 paints a similar picture with Vivo taking the fifth position after Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Transsion in the top four and in that chronological order. In Q4 2022, the order was Apple (25%), Samsung (20%), Xiaomi (11%), Transsion (6%) and Vivo (8%) in market share.
