Samsung‘s year-long run as the world’s largest smartphone company is under serious threat from Apple. The iPhone maker just posted its highest-ever Q1 share, almost toppling Samsung as the smartphone leader. The two firms were separated by less than a single percentage point in Q1 2023.
According to research firm Counterpoint Research, the global smartphone market declined 14 percent year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2023. The firm reported a shipment volume of 280.2 million units in the first three months of the year, down from 326.4 million in the same period a year ago. Shipments also dropped seven percent from 302.6 million units in the year-ending quarter of 2022.
The ongoing economic situation caused this slowdown. All major smartphone vendors suffered a decline in sales in Q1 2023. But things now look much worse for Samsung than for its rival Apple. Its shipments dropped 19 percent this past quarter, while the iPhone maker suffered a negligible two percent decline. The result is, Apple captured 20.7 percent of the global smartphone market while Samsung’s share came in at 21.6 percent.
This is reportedly Apple’s highest-ever market share in the first quarter of any year. Its share in Q1 2022 was 18.1 percent. Samsung captured 22.8 percent of the global smartphone market in the first three months of last year. But it has failed to maintain that gap at the top in the first quarter of 2023. The Korean giant is now at risk of conceding the smartphone crown to the iPhone maker.
Apple usually leads the quarterly chart in the year-ending quarter thanks to the launch of the latest iPhones. However, such a close battle at the top in the first quarter doesn’t bode well for Samsung. The Korean firm launched the Galaxy S23 flagships early in February this year. It should have kept a healthy lead over Apple in Q1 2023. It remains to be seen if Samsung sees turn a of fortune in the second quarter.
Apple already has a massive lead over Samsung in smartphone profit share
Since Apple doesn’t make budget phones, its average selling price (ASP) is usually much higher than other smartphone vendors. Unsurprisingly, it has a massive lead in profit share too. The iPhone maker took about 80 percent of the total operating profit in the smartphone industry in Q1 2023, which is a 72 percentage point lead over Samsung. Apple also generated almost half of the total smartphone revenue despite the Korean firm increasing its ASP 17 percent YoY to $340.
Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are the three biggest smartphone companies behind Samsung and Apple, in that order. They also suffered a massive decline in shipments in Q1 2023. Xiaomi, which had the biggest decline of all five vendors (22 percent), marginally increased its ASP but that wasn’t enough to significantly improve its profit and revenue share. Overall, global smartphone revenues declined by seven percent YoY to around $104 billion in Q1 2023 on the back of poor sales.
2023-05-06 15:13:43