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The global smartphone market has been in a downward spiral throughout 2022 and there’s no sign of a recovery in 2023 either. According to research firm Canalys, smartphone shipments were down 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2023. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of a YoY decline in shipments, beginning in the first quarter of last year.
Vendor-wise, Samsung remains the world’s largest smartphone company but Apple is closing in on it. The Korean firm accounted for 22% of all smartphones sold globally in the first three months of 2023. That’s two percentage points below the 24% share in the first quarter of last year. In comparison, Apple’s market share grew from 18% in Q1 2022 to 21 percent in Q1 2023.
As usual, Apple toppled Samsung in the final quarter of 2022. It launches the latest iPhones in late Q3 or early Q4 of every year and goes on to top the quarterly chart for the last three months of the year. But the Korean firm reclaims the top spot in the first quarter of the new year. The story continues in 2023 as well. Canalys says Samsung achieved a quarter-on-quarter recovery this past quarter to reclaim the crown.
Xiaomi, which once leapfrogged Apple to the second spot and threatened Samsung’s dominance, hasn’t been able to replicate that success in recent quarters. Its market share dropped from 13% in Q1 2022 to 11% in Q1 2023. OPPO has closed the gap to it with a marginal YoY growth of one percentage point (9% to 10%). Vivo completes the usual top five with an eight percent market share, unchanged from last year.
“The smartphone market’s decline in the first quarter of 2023 was within expectations throughout the industry,” said Canalys Analyst Sanyam Chaurasia. “The local macroeconomic conditions continued to hinder vendors’ investments and operations in several markets.”
Samsung needs to do well in the smartphone market in 2023
Apple closing the gap with Samsung in the smartphone market is a worrying sign for the latter for obvious reasons. But the Korean firm has other reasons to do well in the smartphone business in 2023.
For years, semiconductors have been its cash cow, particularly memory chips. However, that business has seen a staggering decline over the past few months, so much so that the company’s profit has hit a 14-year-low in the first three months of 2023. Time will tell whether Samsung manages to fend off Apple’s threat and build a sizable gap to the iPhone maker over the next few quarters.
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