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Samsung has been the top player in the global smartphone market for a while but, recently, the company briefly lost its crown to Apple. Now, though, it seems like things are back in Samsung’s favor.
In 2023, for the first time, Apple managed to ship more smartphones than Samsung had on a global scale. It wasn’t exactly a crushing defect, with Apple taking the edge by just 4%, but it was certainly notable. It also came on the back of Q4 performance where Apple had much better sales compared to Samsung.
According to data from Counterpoint Research shared by The Korea Times, Samsung beat out Apple by a narrow margin to kick off 2024. The company shipped 19.69 million smartphones in the first quarter of the year (presumably only looking at certain regions), beating Apple’s 17.41 million. Samsung, according to the report, currently holds 20% of the global smartphone market, while Apple has dropped down to 18%.
Further breaking down those numbers, Samsung’s share of smartphone shipments during the first quarter was 34% in Europe and 36% in the US, likely on the back of the Galaxy S24 launch. Apple’s share in the States during the same time period dropped down to 48%.
Update 4/15: The IDC is now offering some further insight into Samsung’s comeback. The company is now at 20.8% of the global market, where Apple has dropped to 17.3%.
As a whole, the smartphone market in Q1 2024 grew by around 8%, while Xiaomi and Transsion in particular saw considerable year-over-year growth.
Will this suddenly reverse the ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple for the top global spot? Surely not. But it shows that Samsung has had a killer quarter, something the company will definitely want to continue, but that’ll all come down to the next several months…
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