How is Samsung losing to Apple?
After thirteen years in the global smartphone market, Apple has beaten Samsung, although Samsung manufactures more phones.
Well, it’s good that the premium smartphone market is growing, but why is only Apple benefiting from this?
For the past few years, the global smartphone market has been on a decline, but it went up slightly towards the end of 2023.
According to reports from IDC, the smartphone market saw an 8.5% year-on-year growth compared to last year.
So, in Q4 of 2022, 300 million phones were sold, but in Q4 of 2023, 326.1 million phones were sold.
Apple also dominated the market, selling 234.6 million units throughout the year 2023, with 80.5 million units sold in the last quarter of 2023, and their market share was 20.1%
Whereas Samsung sold 226.6 million units in 2023, their market share was 19.4%.
Xiaomi comes in 3rd place with 12.5%.
OPPO is in 4th place with 8.8%.
And Transsion, which owns Tecno, Infinix, and Itel, is in 5th place with 8.1%.
Only Apple and Transsion showed growth, at 3.7% and 30.8%, respectively, and all other companies are in the negative, with Samsung being the highest at -13.6%.
Why is Only Apple Benefiting?
Let’s analyze this situation a bit.
Apple’s sales have dropped by around 30% in China because Huawei and others have started doing well there.
You can find a Samsung phone in every price range, whereas on the other hand, Apple only releases four phones in a year and that too with premium price tags, and still, Apple is at the top.
Do you understand the influence?
Ok, let me explain…
Apart from tech nerds, who cares that iPhones still use 60Hz displays? I don’t think anyone cares because if it did matter, Apple wouldn’t be sitting at the top right now.
According to Counterpoint Research, the data clearly shows that the overall market is moving towards the premium segment, and most people think Apple products are premium.
Although the above graph always remains like this. Apple’s sales are always higher in Q4 because that’s when the new iPhone is launched. And Samsung’s sales are higher in Q1 because that’s when their new S Series Phone is launched.
Apple has never topped yearly, but this is not the case anymore, and I guess that next year, Apple’s sales numbers will be even higher than Samsung’s.
