Only Recovery
Samsung Electronics has recaptured the number one spot in the global smartphone market share standings. Samsung Electronics, which lost the first spot to Apple in the fourth quarter of last year, regained its No. 1 spot again in the first quarter of 2023 thanks to strong sales of the Galaxy S23.
However, the market share gap between the two smartphone giants, which had reached 6 percentage points in the first quarter of 2022, narrowed to 1 percentage point, putting Samsung Electronics on alert. The Korean tech giant usually showed an advantage in the first quarter due to the launch of new Galaxy models.
According to a report on global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of this year by market research firm Canalys on April 19, Samsung Electronics’ global market share stood at 22 percent, running ahead of Apple by 1 percentage point. In the previous quarter, the fourth quarter of 2022, the market shares were 25 percent for Apple and 20 percent for Samsung Electronics due to the effects of the iPhone launch at the beginning of the quarter.
“Samsung Electronics was the only leading smartphone maker to show a recovery in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter,” Canalys explained. However, compared to the first quarter of 2022, Samsung Electronics’ share shrank by two percentage points. Apple’s share increased by 3 percentage points compared to the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, looking at the market shares of the three major Chinese smartphone makers in the first quarter, Xiaomi followed Samsung Electronics and Apple with 11 percent, Oppo with 10 percent, and Vivo with eight percent. Xiaomi’s share contracted by two percentage points compared to the same period of 2022 while Oppo’s share swelled by 1 percent. Vivo posted a market share as high as its share in the first quarter of last year.
In the first quarter, the global smartphone market shrank by 12 percent compared to the same period of last year, continuing a downward trend for five consecutive quarters.