Samsung regains top slot as it bites into Apple’s phone business

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Samsung has recently surpassed Apple once again, to become the world’s biggest smartphone producer by number of shipments. Currently, Samsung commands about 20.8% of the global smartphone market, while Apple has approximately 17.3% of the market. Xiaomi came in at third place, with a 14.1% share.

Apple had briefly seized the crown in 2023, pausing Samsung’s 13-year reign as top dog in the smartphone market, however, that victory was short-lived.

Apple saw smartphone shipments plunge around 10% in Q1 2024, following Android competition heating up significantly, from makers such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and more.

As a result, iPhone sales fell considerably in China, mainly due to consumers becoming more price and value-conscious, following the pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis effects.

At the top end, Apple saw Huawei as a formidable competitor, while consumers seemed to prefer Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi products at the middle end.

Apple smartphones and its App Store have also been facing more issues and restrictions in China, in retaliation for the US cracking down on Chinese social media apps such as Tik Tok.

On the other hand, Samsung’s Galaxy S24 smartphone sales have been surging, having overtaken the previous Galaxy S23 model as well, with the former shipping more than 60 million units in the first quarter of the year.

This is mainly due to the S24 model having Galaxy artificial intelligence (AI), which offers features such as chat assistance, live translation, transcription assistance, interpretation, generative editing and much more. On the other hand, Apple has made no move as of yet to include AI in its smartphones.

Worldwide smartphone shipments touched 289.4 million, during the first quarter of the year.

Could Samsung be overtaken by cheaper Chinese brands?

Although Samsung is currently at the top of the smartphone production race, the company could still face tough competition from Chinese phone rivals such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Transsion, which owns Itel, Techno and Infinix.

This is especially due to these Chinese brands seeing increased popularity with bargain-hunting customers both domestically and abroad, especially in Europe. Xiaomi especially, has been making big moves to revamp its global strategy and portfolio.

This can especially be seen in other important south-east Asian markets, such as India, where the company has moved from offering mainly budget-friendly phones, which used to suit customer tastes earlier, to launching more upscale models, as consumer demands evolved.

Xiaomi has also recently captured investor and client attention, by launching its first electric vehicle, the SU7 which, the company has said, is expected to take a step closer to bridging the gap in the Human x Car X Smart Home Ecosystem circle.