The global smartphone market remains highly competitive with major players such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Huawei vying for dominance.
According to recent data from GlobalStats, Apple has overtaken Samsung as the most popular smartphone in the first two months of 2023. While this shift is significant, the question remains is it a short-term trend or a long-term shift in the global smartphone market?
In 2022, Samsung had the highest market share of all smartphones but in October of the same year, Apple surpassed Samsung’s market share by just 0.2%. Despite this brief takeover, Samsung regained its position the following month.
Apple’s market share in November and December 2022 was slightly behind each other at 27.48% and 26.98%, respectively.
iPhones have now become the leading smartphone for two consecutive months. In January, Apple made up 27.6% of the global smartphone share while Samsung accounted for 27.09% of the market share. In February, Apple’s share declined slightly to 27.1% and so did Samsung’s market share to 26.75%.
While these numbers are just estimates, global smartphone users are approximately 6.84 billion. iPhone users accounted for 1.85 billion of global users while 1.82 billion users have chosen Samsung.
Others like the Chinese leading smartphone, Xiaomi has 12.29% of the global smartphone market share in February. Oppo followed with a 6.86% share.
Huawei, however, continued to relinquish its market share since the U.S. and other developed nations imposed a ban on it in their countries for security reasons. Huawei’s market share stood at 4.84% in February.
Investors King’s analysis shows that going forward Apple will continue to record success in existing and new markets going forward because of its strong brand image, customer loyalty, and effective marketing. While Samsung, Apple’s formidable rival will need continuous innovation to differentiate itself in order to catch up with Apple.
However, it is imperative to note that this shift in market share may be due to various factors, including new product releases, marketing strategies and consumer preferences during the period under review.
It is possible that Samsung may regain its top position in the future, especially with the launch of new models such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Note 22.
