The global smartphone industry continued its recovery in Q1 2024, registering a 7.8% growth from last year. It was the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year (YoY) shipment growth. However, the market wasn’t kind to Apple. The iPhone maker suffered almost a 10% shipment decline this past quarter. Market leader Samsung’s shipments remained flat.
Apple suffered a shipment decline in Q1 2024 despite a market growth
Apple’s iPhone sales are usually low in the first quarter of a new year due to various factors. It launches new models in September and enjoys strong sales in the final quarter of the previous year—Apple often leads the market in Q4. Sales slow down as we enter the new year. The Q1 also sees Samsung and other Android vendors introduce their latest flagships, so they eat into Apple’s market. Something similar happened in Q1 2024.
In January, Samsung launched its Galaxy S24 series with built-in AI features. The devices have been selling well. Not well enough to help the Korean company improve its shipments over Q1 2023, though. According to market research firm IDC, it shipped 60.1 million smartphones this past quarter, a 0.7% drop from 60.5 million during the same period last year. The company’s market share dropped from 22.5% to 20.8%.
While Samsung managed to keep shipments flat, Apple’s shipment volume dropped 9.6% from 55.4 million to 50.1 million. Expectedly, the iPhone maker’s market share also declined to 17.3%. It was 20.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023. This drop allowed the third-placed Xiaomi to narrow the gap to Apple. The Chinese firm shipped 40.8 million Android smartphones in Q1 2024, capturing 14.1% of the global market.
Xiaomi and Transsion had a strong start to 2024
Xiaomi enjoyed a solid start to 2024. It registered a 33.8% YoY shipment growth in the first quarter, going up from 30.5 million shipments and an 11.4% market share. However, its growth rate was bettered by Transsion, which makes phones under the Tecno, Itel, and Infinix brands. It almost doubled its shipments from 15.4 million to 28.5 million, an 84.9% growth. This allowed it to leapfrog OPPO into the fourth spot on the chart.
OPPO saw its shipments decline 8.5% to 25.2 million units. Its market share dropped from 10.3% in Q1 2023 to 8.7% in Q1 2024. The rest of the brands, including Google, OnePlus, Vivo, Huawei, Motorola, Nokia, and others, captured the remaining 29.3% of the market. These brands cumulatively registered a 7.2% shipment growth in this year’s first three months. Some companies may have enjoyed better success than others, though. It remains to be seen how the market unfolds for the rest of the year.
