Samsung maintains its lead in the latest smartphone sales by a narrow margin

Important points

Samsung shipped 18% of the world’s smartphones in the third quarter, narrowly holding on to the top spot against the iPhone, which also accounted for 18% of shipments.
While the new iPhone 16 lineup helped Apple ship more devices, the Galaxy S24 series is believed to have slowed down in Q3 2024.
Xiaomi remains the third-largest smartphone manufacturer with a market share of 14%, Oppo ranks fourth with 9%, and Vivo rounds out the top five with the same 9%.

Samsung is struggling to retain the title it took from Nokia more than a decade ago as the world’s biggest smartphone maker. In 2023, Apple succeeded in knocking Samsung off its perch despite a 3.2% drop in unit shipments. However, Samsung fought back and regained the top spot in Q1 2024, albeit by a much closer margin. Now that third-quarter sales have been released, Samsung still leads the pack, but the sales gap between it and Apple is smaller than ever.

In some movies with a green background, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is placed face down next to the Pixel 8.

Google’s Pixel sales decline, Samsung’s Galaxy sales increase, US smartphone market continues to decline

Companies that developed Android captured less than 2% of U.S. smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024.

According to Canalys, Samsung shipped 18% of smartphones in the third quarter, narrowly holding onto the top spot over Apple, which also accounted for 18% of shipments (via GSMArena). Samsung had a 21% market share in the same period last year, while Apple had 17%. It looks like the new iPhone 16 series will give Apple a boost in 2024.

Canalys noted that Apple has never been closer to leading the global smartphone market in the third quarter than it is now, with unit sales in the third quarter hitting a record high. The company is riding a wave of the market’s shift toward premium devices, paralleling update cycles for gadgets people bought during the pandemic.

Source: Canalys

For Samsung, its premium Galaxy S models launch at the beginning of the year, but their popularity has tended to slow over the past two quarters. For reference, in the first quarter of 2024, Samsung shipped 19.64 million units, surpassing Apple’s 17.51 million units.

Overall smartphone shipments increased by 5%

The smartphone market looks pretty strong in Q3 2024. Global smartphone shipments increased 5% year over year, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. In addition to Apple and Samsung, Android brands such as Xiaomi and Vivo are also in the top five.

Xiaomi gained 14% of the market share and maintained its position as the third largest smartphone manufacturer. Oppo gained 9% market share and took fourth place on the list for the first time this year. Rounding out the top five was Vivo with double-digit growth in shipments and 9% of the market.