Samsung has overtaken Apple as the world’s leading mobile phone maker following a slump in iPhone sales in the past three months.
Around 50.1 million iPhones were shipped in the first three months of the year, against 55.4 million units in the same period last year, according to market researcher IDC.
As a result, Samsung has a 20.8% market share and Apple 17.3%, though there were big gains for Chinese makers.
Samsung regained its crown as the world’s largest smartphone maker by shipping more than 60 million phones, down 0.7% on last year.
Total global market deliveries rose by 7.8% to 289.4 million units.
“The smartphone market is emerging from the turbulence of the last two years both stronger and changed,” said Nabila Popal, research director at IDC.
“While Apple has been super resilient and seen a lot of growth in shipments and share over the last few years, it will be a challenge for it to maintain the pace of growth and the peak share it saw in 2023.
“As the market recovers further in 2024, IDC expects Android to grow much faster than Apple.”
IDC added that China-based Xiaomi shipped 40.8 million units, a 33% year-over-year increase.
Locally-based giant Huawei is also rising fast in China, according to the report and following last year’s introduction of its own chip and operating system.
“Increased competition in China is a big part of Apple’s decline in the first quarter,” Popal said, while other regions had excess stocks.
Apple has had to cut its prices to resist the competition in China, an unusual move for the premium-priced mobile maker.
China is Apple’s biggest retail network outside the US and accounts for roughly a fifth of sales, largely driven by the iPhone.
