Apple dethrones Samsung to claim global smartphone sales crown

The smartphone sales king is dead; long live the king!

Apple has taken the lead in global smartphone sales, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The Cupertino colossus swapped places with Samsung to take the number one spot in smartphone sales around the world in 2023.

Samsung retained its number one position in sales for the past 12 years.

The big winners, per the report from the IDC, were Transsion with 8.1% market share, Oppo at 8.8%, Xiaomi at 12.5%, Samsung at 19.4%, and Apple, at 20.1%. All other smartphone brands accounted for 31% of sales last year.

Apple has been hot on Samsung's heels in past years, coming in with 18.8% of the market in 2022 compared to the Korean company's 21.6% that year. 

Interestingly, Apple was one of the only smartphone manufacturers to see a growth in sales last year. While Samsung's smartphone shipments fell by 13.6% compared to the prior year, Apple saw 3.7% in sales growth in 2023. Overall, the smartphone market as a whole fell 3.2% last year.

Apple's achievement is largely due to stellar sales of the iPhone 14 family and continued demand for the iPhone 15. 

Another winner was Chinese-based Transsion, which sells budget-oriented smartphones under a variety of sub-brands. The company saw a staggering 30.8% growth in smartphone shipments between 2022 and 2023. All other brands saw shrinkage, particularly the aforementioned slump in Samsung's sales and a 4.7% and 9.9% reduction in shipments by Xiaomi and Oppo, respectively.

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