The last time Samsung wasn’t No.1 in smartphone sales in any given year was all the way back in 2010. And yet – it’s finally happened again. Just like competing analyst house Canalys revealed a few hours ago, IDC is now out with its own report and confirming the once-in-more-than-a-decade news: Apple took the crown away from Samsung in 2023.
According to IDC estimates, the Cupertino company shipped 234.6 million smartphones last year, for a market share of 20.1%, while Samsung only managed 226.6 million shipments taking 19.4% of the pie.
In third was Xiaomi with 145.9 million units shipped and 12.5% market share, followed by Oppo with 103.1 million units shipped and 8.8% of the market, and Transsion with 94.9 million units shipped for an 8.1% share.
Compared to 2022, Apple’s shipments grew by 3.7%, and Transsion’s grew by a whopping 30.8%. In case you’re wondering, Transsion is the company that owns Tecno and Infinix. On the other hand, Samsung’s shipments fell by 13.6% year-on-year, Xiaomi’s by 4.7%, and Oppo’s by 9.9%. If we look at the market in total, shipments fell 3.2% in 2023 compared to 2022.
In the fourth quarter of 2023 (October to December), Apple was No.1 with 80.5 million shipments and a 24.7% market share, Samsung managed 53 million units shipped for 16.3% of the market, and Xiaomi shipped 40.7 million units and had 12.5% of the pie (coincidentally that’s exactly the same percentage as for the full year).
However, Transsion was fourth with 28.2 million shipments and 8.6% market share, while in fifth came vivo with 24.1 million shipments and 7.5% market share. Overall the market grew in Q4 2023 by 8.5% compared to Q4 2022.
