Samsung Overtakes Apple as Global Leader in Smartphones

An economic report published on Wednesday showed that the South Korean company, “Samsung” Electronics, has regained first place in terms of the global market share of smartphones in the first quarter of this year, thanks to sales of the Galaxy S23 phones, after the American company “Apple” took the lead in the last quarter of the year. the past.
At the same time, the difference in market share between “Samsung” and “Apple” shrank from 6 percentage points in the first quarter of last year to one point during the first quarter of this year. Market research firm Canalys said in its report on smartphone shipments in the first quarter on Wednesday that Samsung’s share of the global smartphone market reached 22 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to 21 percent for its competitor, Apple.
And the South Korean Yonhap Agency indicated that the share of “Apple” in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to 25 percent, compared to 20 percent for its South Korean competitor. And Canalys stated that Samsung is the only company that witnessed a recovery in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year, but the share of Samsung decreased by two percentage points compared to the first quarter of last year, while the share of Apple increased by 3 percentage points over the same period.
For its part, the Chinese company “Xiaomi” came in third place with a share of 11 percent, followed by the Chinese “Oppo” company with a share of 10 percent, and the Chinese company “Vivo” with a share of 8 percent.
At the same time, the volume of the global smartphone market declined in the first quarter of this year by 12 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, to continue the market decline for the fifth quarter in a row.
In the midst of this fierce war, Apple opened its first store in India on Tuesday, in an indication of the growing interest of the American giant in this giant country in South Asia, which represents a major market and a potential alternative to China to manufacture its products.
India has more than 600 million smartphone users, while Android devices dominate this market, in which consumers pay special attention to price. And Chinese smartphone manufacturers “Xiaomi”, “Vivo”, “Oppo” and “Realme” acquired a cumulative market share of 66 percent in 2022, while South Korean “Samsung” alone won 19 percent of the market, according to research firm Canalys. ». The share of iPhones in the Indian market did not exceed 4 percent last year.
However, according to Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia, Apple may benefit from smartphone development and financing programs for Indian retailers and consumers. “Apple is focusing more on the Indian market because it sees more opportunity there,” Chaurasia told AFP.
India has also become an essential part of Apple’s plans to move its production of devices and components out of China, in light of diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing, but also motivated by the negative repercussions on the supply chain as a result of the strict Chinese policies to combat the outbreak of Covid.
In 2021, only 1 percent of iPhones were manufactured in India, before that percentage rose to 7 percent last year, Bloomberg reported last week. Apple began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, through Taiwanese suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.