Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Samsung for the first time as the best-selling smartphone in 2023, according to a new exhibition from IDC. The tech giant accounted for 20% of the global market with 234.6 million shipments last year. Samsung ended the year with 226.6 million shipments, while Xiaomi and Oppo saw 145.9 and 103.1 shipments, respectively. Transsion rounded out the top five with 94.9 million shipments.
The report notes that the last time a company other than Samsung topped the smartphone market was in 2010, when Nokia took the top spot.
“While we saw some strong growth from low-end Android players such as Transsion and Xiaomi in the second half of 2023, driven by rapid growth in emerging markets, the biggest winner is clearly Apple,” said Nabila Popal, director of research in IDC’s Worldwide Tracker. team, in a press release. “Apple is not only the only player in the Top 3 to show positive year-over-year growth, but also takes the top spot annually for the first time.”
Popal went on to note that Apple took the top spot despite increased regulatory challenges and competition from Huawei in China, its biggest market. The report comes as Apple is currently offering rare discounts on some of its smartphones in China in a bid to attract customers. The research firm says Apple’s continued success is largely due to the “rising trend of premium devices, which now account for more than 20% of the market, fueled by aggressive trade-in offers and interest-free financing plans.”
Image Credits: IDC
IDC says that while Apple played a role in Samsung’s drop, it’s worth noting that there was competition in the Android space itself, with OnePlus, Honor, Google and others launching competing devices at the lower end of the high-end. In addition, foldables and discussions around AI capabilities in smartphones are gaining ground.
According to the report, global smartphone shipments fell 3.2% year-on-year to 1.17 billion units in 2023.
“While this marks the lowest full-year volume in a decade, driven largely by macroeconomic challenges and increased inventories at the start of the year, growth in the second half of the year cemented the expected recovery for 2024,” IDC highlighted. “The fourth quarter (4Q13) saw 8.5% year-over-year growth and 326.1 million shipments, higher than the forecast for 7.3% growth.
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