Apple loses top phonemaker spot to Samsung as iPhone shipments drop, IDC says

 

The fierce rivalry among Android smartphone manufacturers for the top place caused Apple's (AAPL.O) opens new tab smartphone shipments to fall by almost 10% in the first quarter of 2024, according to statistics released on Sunday by research company IDC.

Between January and March, shipments of smartphones worldwide rose 7.8% to 289.4 million devices, with Samsung (005930.KS), opens new tab, taking the lead in the market share race from Apple with a 20.8% share.

Following a stellar quarter in which it surpassed Samsung to become the world's top phone manufacturer, the iPhone maker experienced a sharp decrease in sales. With a 17.3% market share, it has returned to the second place, gaining ground on Chinese companies like Huawei.

With a 14.1% market share in the first quarter, Xiaomi—one of the leading smartphone manufacturers in China—was in third place.

Samsung, a South Korean company, delivered over 60 million smartphones at the time after launching the Galaxy S24 series, its newest flagship smartphone range, at the start of the year.

In the first three weeks of their release, sales of Galaxy S24 smartphones worldwide increased by 8% when compared to the Galaxy S23 series of the previous year, according to data source Counterpoint.

IDC reports that Apple delivered 50.1 million iPhones in the first quarter, compared to 55.4 million handsets during the same period last year.

In comparison to a year earlier, Apple's smartphone shipments to China decreased 2.1% in the last quarter of 2023.