Samsung has been the world's biggest smartphone brand for nearly a decade. However, its market share has been dwindling, and it has been in danger for a few years, primarily from Apple. In Q1 2023, the difference between the global market shares of Apple and Samsung was just 1% point.
According to the latest numbers from Counterpoint Research for Q1 2023, Samsung was the world's number-one smartphone brand. It had a 22% share of the global smartphone market share. The Galaxy S23 series sold well globally after its launch in February, allowing the company to maintain its number one position. According to some reports, the Galaxy S23 sold much better than the Galaxy S22 series last year. An interesting thing to note is that smartphone sales in Europe declined by a whopping 41%, and it is one of the markets where Samsung does really well.
Apple had a 21% market share during the same period despite selling much more expensive phones on average. Xiaomi has an 11% share of the global smartphone market, while OPPO, Vivo, and Honor have market shares of 10%, 7%, and 5%, respectively. Over 280 million smartphones were sold globally in Q1 2023, a 7% decline from Q4 2022 and a 14% drop compared to Q1 2022.
Among the top five smartphone brands in shipments, Apple saw the lowest decline, resulting in its highest-ever numbers for the first quarter of a year. OnePlus emerged as the fastest-growing top-ten smartphone brand. In Q2 2023, Samsung may have a tough time protecting its number-one position as sales are generally lower in Q2 for the company since it doesn't launch new phones during the quarter. The company will launch the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 next week, and they will go on sale shortly after.
