The gap between Apple and Samsung in terms of smartphone shipments has narrowed to its lowest point ever. While Samsung has led Apple in terms of units shipped for most of the past 15 years, new research data for the first nine months of 2024 shows that Samsung shipped only 20 million more smartphones than Apple.
The report by AltIndex.com shows that during the nine months of 2024, Samsung shipped 171.8 million smartphones, and Apple shipped 151.3 million smartphones.
The 20 million shipment gap is only a fraction of the difference between the two competitors as recently as five years ago. For example, in 2019, the nine-month shipment difference between Samsung and Apple was five times bigger and amounted to 108.8 million. That is roughly 8 per cent more than the figures reported for the same period between 2015 and 2019, when the shipment gap stood between 95 million and 105 million, and 15 per cent more compared to a massive 125 million unit difference in the nine months of 2014.
While Samsung shipments have dropped over the last few years, Apple has increased.
One of the reasons is that Samsung is focusing on the more premium segment of smartphones. It gradually shifted its focus from budget models that once drove high sales volumes to high-end models like the Z series and Galaxy S.
Simultaneously, Chinese competitors Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have made significant strides over the years in the budget smartphone segment and have gained market share in regions where Samsung otherwise held the lead.
Data from American research firm IDC also indicates that Chinese smartphone makers are rapidly gaining market share.
According to the IDC, in the third quarter of this year, global smartphone shipments increased 4 per cent year over year to 316.1 million units.
While Samsung and Apple led in terms of overall smartphone shipments with 57.8 million and 56 million units shipped respectively over that period, they were followed by Xiaomi (42.8 million), Oppo (28.8 million), and Vivo (27 million).
Samsung’s decision to focus on more premium phones is supported by assessments by leading tech executives about the growth of AI-enabled devices over the coming years. Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon recently made a sweeping prediction that everyone will have an AI-enabled smartphone within five years. The San Diego-based company dominates the processor market for mobile devices using the Android operating system.
With Apple rolling out its Apple Intelligence platform and locking out phones lower than the iPhone 15 Pro from receiving its new AI software, it is forcing a massive upgrade cycle among its customers who were up until this point unwilling to upgrade their devices.
