Summary
- Apple surpassed Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer in 2023 despite a decline in global smartphone shipments.
- Huawei’s comeback in China and competition from other Android manufacturers contributed to Samsung’s shipment decline.
- Apple’s strong demand for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series drove impressive shipment numbers, especially in Q4 2023.
Samsung dethroned Nokia to become the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer in 2010. A crown that the Korean giant has held for 13 long years. But the latest numbers from analyst firm IDC suggest that Apple toppled Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer in 2023. More impressively, the Cupertino company achieved this despite the overall smartphone market registering a 3.2% YoY decline in shipments to a decade-low 1.17 billion units.
Preliminary data from IDC shows Apple shipped 234.6 million iPhones in 2023 to grab 20.1% of the smartphone market. That’s up from 226.3 million shipments in 2022 and a market share of 18.8%. This is the first time Apple has become the world’s biggest smartphone maker by volume for a full calendar year.
Samsung came in second with 19.4% of the market share and clocked 226.6 million shipments, a big decline from 262.2 million in 2022. Overall, the Korean company saw its market share shrink by 13.6%, which Apple capitalized upon. IDC’s group vice president Ryan Reith believes Huawei’s strong comeback in China and Honor, OnePlus, and Google launching “very competitive devices in the lower price range of the high end” segment played a key role in Samsung’s shipment decline.
Samsung was not the only major Android manufacturer to register a decline in its yearly smartphone shipments. Xiaomi and Oppo occupied the third and fourth slots and saw their yearly shipments decline by 4.7% and 9.9%, respectively.
In Q4 2023, Apple is estimated to have shipped a whopping 80.5 million iPhones to grab 24.7% of the market share, registering an 11.6% growth. For comparison, the company shipped 72.1 million iPhones in the year-ago quarter. This was likely made possible by the strong demand for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series.
A new iPhone typically launches in late Q3, so Apple has always posted impressive shipment numbers in the last quarter. But this is the first full calendar year in which the company shipped more smartphones than Samsung. This is an impressive feat, considering Apple does not sell budget phones like Samsung and other Android manufacturers.
In the same period, Samsung shipped 53 million Galaxy phones, down from 59.5 million units shipped in Q4 2022. On the other hand, Xiaomi, Transsion, and Vivo registered healthy growth in device shipments in the last quarter of the year. Overall, in Q4, the smartphone market reversed the trend of declining shipments, growing by 8.5% to 326.1 million.
The smartphone market is expected to bounce back in 2024 thanks to improved macroeconomic conditions, growing consumer interest in foldables, and new AI-powered features. Samsung plans to capitalize on the growing AI hype with the upcoming launch of the Galaxy S24 series, which is rumored to pack several AI features.
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