Samsung has become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, overtaking Apple in the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest data from IDC, a global market intelligence firm.
According to IDC, the smartphone market itself took a noticeable decline during the coronavirus pandemic but is now climbing steadily once again, increasing 7.8% to 289.4 million units in Q1 2024.
The data showed that Samsung had 20.8% market share, while Apple accounted for 17.3% and Xiaomi had 14.1% from the new market sales.
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In the first quarter of 2024, Apple shipped 50.1 million iPhones compared to 55.4 million units it shipped during the same period last year.
In the past year, Apple and Samsung have been having a back-and-forth with the smartphone top spot, Apple surpassed Samsung in December last year.
According to IDC, this back-and-forth represents a changing market, with a resurgence of Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi.
The results also saw Chinese smartphone manufacturer Transsion enter the top five for the first time, squeezing out Vivo. While relatively unknown in the West, Transsion is a rapidly growing smartphone brand in emerging markets, particularly Africa where it sold more phones than both Samsung and Xiaomi.
Commenting on the smartphone market, Nabila Popal, Research Director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team said, “The smartphone market is emerging from the turbulence of the last two years both stronger and changed.
“Xiaomi is coming back strong from the large declines experienced over the past two years and Transsion is becoming a stable presence in the Top 5 with aggressive growth in international markets. In contrast, while the top two players both saw negative growth in the first quarter, it seems Samsung is in a stronger position overall than they were in recent quarters,” she said.
