The global smartphone market has experienced its fair share of ups and downs over the past two years. After falling consistently in the first three quarters of 2023, the market recovered in the fourth quarter and has shown slow but steady growth since then. This trend continued in Q3 2024 Approximately 316.1 million smartphones were shipped worldwide, an increase of 4% year over year. According to the latest data from IDC, shipments grew by an impressive 10.8% on a quarterly basis.
However, contrary to that trend, Samsung emerged as the only company among the top five to see a decline in global smartphone shipments in the September quarter. The leading Korean company is struggling to attract smartphone customers, with shipments steadily declining from early 2023 to the third quarter of 2024. Even in the second quarter, the brand’s shipments grew only marginally by 0.7% year over year.
Let’s take a closer look at the performance of the top 5 smartphone players in Q3 2024.
Top 5 Smartphone Brands in the World in Q3 2024
- Samsung remained the global leader in the smartphone market in Q3 2024 despite a decline in shipments and market share. The company shipped 57.8 million smartphones in the third quarter, down 2.8% year over year. As a result, Samsung’s market share declined from 19.6% in Q3 2023 to 18.3% in Q3 2024. However, on a quarterly basis, the company posted strong shipment growth of 7.2%.
- Apple shipped 56 million iPhones in Q3 2024, an impressive 3.5% year-over-year growth and 23.9% quarter-over-quarter growth. Despite this performance, the Cupertino giant experienced a slight decline in market share, dropping by 0.1 percentage points from 17.8% in Q3 2023 to 17.7% in Q3 2024.
- Similarly, Xiaomi’s share of the global smartphone market decreased by 0.1 points to 13.5%, despite a 3.3% year-on-year increase in shipments in Q3 2024. Chinese OEMs shipped 42.8 million units worldwide.
- In Q3 2024, Oppo regained the 4th spot from Vivo, which briefly snatched the spot in Q2. During the September quarter, Oppo shipped 28.8 million smartphones, achieving 5.9% year-on-year growth and capturing 9.1% market share.
- Vivo emerged as the biggest draw of the quarter. Smartphone shipments recorded an astonishing 22.8% year-on-year growth, reaching a total of 27 million units in the third quarter of 2024. As a result, Vivo’s market share rose from 7.2% to 8.5% in just one year.
Global smartphone shipments: What is driving growth?
The strong performance of Chinese vendors such as Vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Huawei mainly drove the annual growth in global smartphone shipments. In particular, Vivo’s remarkable success can be attributed to its aggressive product launches and strategic focus on affordability.
Despite the decline in shipments, Samsung continues to increase its market share in the premium segment. The introduction of AI features into high-end devices such as Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 has significantly improved performance in this segment and established Samsung as a strong competitor in the premium smartphone market.
In contrast, Apple iPhone shipment growth in Q3 2024 was primarily driven by the following factors: There is strong demand for older models, especially the iPhone 15 lineup. This surge in demand occurred shortly after the launch of the iPhone 16 lineup, prompting iPhone 15 models to drop in price and become more appealing to consumers around the world.
The iPhone 15’s exceptional performance can also be attributed to the extensive promotional efforts and enhanced marketing efforts surrounding Apple Intelligence.
The holiday season (October to December) is always Apple’s best quarter, so the company expects many loyal iPhone users to upgrade from iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and earlier models to iPhone 15 or 16 models. I’m doing it.
The global smartphone market is undergoing a transformation as consumer preferences shift towards devices with advanced AI capabilities. With demand for both premium and budget smartphones on the rise, it will be interesting to see which brands take advantage of this trend and emerge as leaders.
