From mobile phones to other home gadgets, Samsung has dominated the electronic world for the longest time. Samsung has been the global leader as far as smartphone selling is concerned for the past decade. However, the Korean giant was recently overthrown by Apple. The iPhone dethroned Samsung back in mid-2023 when it sold a record 234.6 million units of mobile phones. According to the data collected and analyzed by the IDC (International Data Corporation), Samsung came in second position at the same time with 226.6 million units of mobile phones sold.
The International Data Corporation articulated the rise of Apple to the top spot because of recent trends like the ever-rising popularity of high-end and high-performing devices. The crowning of Apple as the global phone market leader came around just when the company was about to release its latest flagship mobile device, the iPhone 15. At the date of its release, the iPhone 15 came in three flavours, each boasting the latest mobile chip from Apple, the A17 Bionic chip. The phone also packed a revolutionary triple-lens camera with outstanding low-light capabilities, a beautiful OLED display, and a ProMotion refresh rate.
However, its key selling point was the premium design and materials used to build the iPhone 15. The phone had a sleek, military-grade titanium frame with a frosted glass back that set it ages ahead of its competitors as far as design was concerned.
Today, iPhones constitute over 20% of the mobile devices on the market.
The IDC spokesperson said that the last time Samsung was not at the top of the food chain in the global smartphone market was way back in 2010, circa a decade ago. He went on to say that Apple’s dethroning of Samsung in 2023 showed a shift of power at the top of the largest consumer electronics market, posing a record high market share recorded by Apple in the same year.
Data collected by the IDC indicates that Apple, a US-based company valued at around $2.8 trillion or £2.2 trillion, is attributed to a market share of 20.1% compared to Samsung’s 19.4% in the global smartphone market. The IDC added that over the years, Apple had already established itself as the leading smartphone company vis a vis revenue and profits. However, this was the first time it was leading in both.
Still, note that the IDC released this report before Samsung released their latest flagship models like the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and the S24 Ultra. Samsung had announced earlier in the year that these devices would come with superior Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning features.
In a recent interview with EatNews, Rausse, a graphic designer and tech enthusiast, stated, “Apple’s meticulous design, seamless ecosystem, and emphasis on privacy have given the company an edge over its competitors in the global smartphone market.”
He added that Apple’s consistent innovation, including 5G capabilities, played a huge role in this development. Conversely, Rausse noted that Samsung’s challenges in design consistency and addressing privacy concerns contribute to Apple’s dominance in the highly competitive market.
According to Ben Wood, a chief analyst at CSS Insight – a research firm in London, the data released by the International Data Corporation had somewhat of a “psychological” effect on Samsung’s planned release later in the year. However, Wood still expects the race to be tight this year, with Google also coming into the scene with their AI-backed flagship smartphone, The Google Pixel.
Mr. Wood continued to say that in as much as he expects the race for the top spot this year to be tight, he still believes that Apple is already on a strong trajectory. This is mostly due to the customer loyalty that the iPhone and other Apple products offer, such that once a customer buys an Apple product, they rarely change to another ecosystem.
He concluded by saying the upcoming Samsung releases must do everything to retain their present customers and bring in new users from other ecosystems.
In the data released by the IDC, they pointed out that there was a steep rise in the fragmented market for Android smartphones. This steep rise of medium-end players like Techno, Xiaomi and others in that category contributes to this fragmentation potentially, allowing Apple’s tightly integrated hardware-software ecosystem in iPhones to gain an edge in the high-end market.
Another factor that led to Samsung’s dethroning is the success currently enjoyed by Huawei in the Chinese phone market. The IDC also highlighted that Huawei remains a strong threat to Apple in China, Apple’s largest market in the world.
The IDC was also keen to point out that the global phone market had experienced a drop of 3.2% to 1.17 billion units in 2023. Nevertheless, they still expected the market to pick up pace after a sluggish year.
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