Samsung at the top as smartphone sales dropped 8% in Q2 2023

Smartphone sales continue to tumble globally. According to research firm Counterpoint, smartphone shipments were down eight percent year-on-year (YoY) and five percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q2 2023. This was the eighth consecutive quarter to see a YoY decline. Samsung is still at the top but it suffered a bigger drop in sales than some of its rivals.

Counterpoint’s study revealed that Samsung captured 22 percent of the global smartphone market this past quarter. The figure is unchanged from the same period last year. The Korean firm benefitted from strong sales of its Galaxy A series mid-range devices globally, the research firm states. Samsung launched the Galaxy A54 5G and Galaxy A34 5G in late March.

Samsung may still be in danger

It’s not all sunshine and roses for the world’s largest smartphone vendor, though. Samsung’s smartphone shipments dropped 12 percent YoY in Q2 2023. That’s worse than the global average of eight percent. Worse yet, its closest rival Apple only saw a two percent YoY decline in iPhone shipments during the same period. This helped the company increase its share by a percentage point to 17 percent.

This was Apple’s highest-ever Q2 market share, which is notable because the second quarter is usually an unfavorable season for the iPhone maker. It also posted its highest-ever Q1 share earlier this year. Slowly but surely, Apple is threatening to topple Samsung as the global smartphone king. The Korean firm has topped this chart for the past several years, even though Apple often leapfrogs it in the final quarter of the year.

Xiaomi (12 percent market share), Oppo (10 percent), and Vivo (8 percent) are the next three biggest smartphone companies. The former saw a 12 percent YoY decline in shipments as it struggled in its two primary markets — China and India. Vivo also faced similar headwinds in its major markets, leading to a 17 percent YoY decline. It was the worst-hit company among the top five.

Oppo, on the other hand, is reaping the benefits of taking OnePlus in-house. This has helped the company grow in India and China, though it registered losses in European markets. Overall, its smartphone shipments were down only three percent YoY in the second quarter of the year. The fourth-placed Oppo has distanced itself a little from the fifth-placed Vivo and moved closer to the third-placed Xiaomi.

“The global smartphone market now seems to be well past its rapid growth phase, with consumer replacement cycles getting longer, convergence in device innovation, and the emergence of a more mature refurbished market for smartphones hitting particularly the higher-volume low-to-mid-tier price segment demand,” wrote Counterpoint Research analyst Ankit Malhotra.