Apple Tops Samsung For First Time in Global Smartphone Shipments

For the first time ever, Apple beat out Samsung to ship the most smartphones in a year according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. From a report: Although IDC cautions that its data is preliminary and subject to change, a second research agency, Canalys, also has Apple taking its top spot for all of 2023. IDC has Apple's total mobile shipments at 234.6 million, versus 226.6 million for Samsung. Xiaomi, Oppo, and Transsion round out the top five with 145.9, 103.1 and 94.9 million smartphones shipped, respectively.

IDC notes that the last time Samsung wasn't on top of the annual board was 13 years ago in 2010. Back then Apple didn't even feature in the top five. Instead it was Nokia in first place, Samsung in second, LG Electronics in third, ZTE in fourth, and Research in Motion (manufacturers of BlackBerry devices) in fifth.

Wow

[bistromath007]

Didn't know they had that kind of relationship. Good for Samsung, though.

So about 80% Android

[fred6666]

Since Apple has 20% market share.

Re:

[aaarrrgggh]

Comes down to user base. It likely means Apple's user share is going higher than 20%.

Re:So about 80% Android

[Anubis IV]

Yeah, I suspect that Apple being at #1 says more about Samsung slipping to Android competition than about Apple growing their overall share.

I haven't checked in the last year, but I imagine that—as has been the case for the better part of a decade—Apple remains at roughly a 50% share in several of the major markets (e.g. US, UK, Japan), roughly 15-25% in most of the rest of the developed world (e.g. continental Europe and greater Asia), and then less than 15% in most of the developing world. The factors that dictate iOS vs. Android market share tend to be economic and cultural, so they shift very slowly, whereas the factors that dictate whether someone gets a Samsung vs. LG can easily shift from year to year.

Re:

[UncleTogie]

I'm still rolling a Note 20 because nothing new since has had any wow to it whatsoever. No new critical features, just a slightly-better camera. Meh.

Re:

[_merlin]

the factors that dictate whether someone gets a Samsung vs. LG can easily shift from year to year

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't LG get out of the smartphone business, following HTC? I remember my friends who liked LG phones being disappointed, as the HTC fans had been previously.

Re:

[Anubis IV]

Yep, they sure did. I was scanning for the #2 Android name in the summary and grabbed the one from 13 years ago by accident. Oops! Nice catch.

Re:

[Plumpaquatsch]

Yes Virginia, Android is a Monopoly.

Lighting connector

[meandmatt]

He He, I guess the EU should require lightning connector on all phones instead of USB-C. It makes almost as much sense as the other way around. Yeah yeah yeah yeah... Just Kidding. one connector would be nice but we all know by the time that happens, we get the next USB connector revision. B, mini, micro, misc, C...

Re:

[nicubunu]

Apple shipped more devices than any other single phone manufacturer, but much less than all of them combined. Phones with a lightning connector are a small minority compared with phones with an USB-C connector. EU was right.

Part of the decline explanation: #GSOD

[AncalagonTotof]

That no surprise that @samsung is going down: how many #GSOD ? [youtube.com]

Re:

[thegarbz]

Who cares. The Galaxy Note 9 wasn't exactly a big seller. The reality is that Samsung has both a smaller product line, as well extra competition in the low end where they did previously get a lot of sales.

Re:

[AncalagonTotof]

Who cares ? The owners of GN9 as well as S9, S10, and many more models. I'm no superstar youtuber. Even though I got a substantial amount of view. And more interesting are the comments : they put some light on the consideration @samsung has for its customer. Close to none. Only their wallet.
Does your comment "The Galaxy Note 9 wasn't exactly a big seller" mean that is a rationale for not servicing, for free, their defective products, and HW defects caused by poorly tested SW updates ?

Two Companies

[Bahbus]

I never recommend buying anything from. Both make nothing but junk products.