The global smartphone market showed signs of recovery in the first quarter of the year, with shipments increasing by 6% year-on-year, reaching a total of 296.9 million units. According to data released by Counterpoint Research, Samsung has taken the top spot in the market, overtaking Apple. Samsung captured 20% of the shipment market share, up from 17% in the previous quarter, while Apple saw its share fall to 17%, with shipments declining 13% year over year. The market growth was mainly attributed to robust performance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
The most dynamic region was MEA, thanks to strong shipments from brands such as Tecno, Xiaomi and Honor. Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint, highlighted that Europe saw significant growth compared to a difficult first quarter of 2023 while North American and Japanese markets showed declines. Despite this decline in shipments, Apple led the smartphone market in terms of revenue and held a 43% share. However, its revenue fell 11% from the previous year due to stiff competition from Samsung. On the other hand, Samsung’s revenue grew by 2%, driven by solid performances of their Galaxy S24 series and Galaxy-A series.
Smartphone shipments rose by 7.8% to 289.4 million units during this period. This represents a third consecutive quarter of consecutive growth according to analyst firm IDC’s report on smartphone shipments for Q1 of this year