Samsung has lost its top spot in global smartphone shipments for the first time in more than a decade. It lost it to Apple. [According to data from market research firm IDC, Apple had a 20.1% share of the global market compared to Samsung's 19.4%. This is the first time that Samsung did not take first place since 2010, when it knocked Nokia off the podium.

This is the first time Apple has taken the top spot, thanks to a breakthrough in 2023 led by the iPhone 15 family. In fact, Apple was the only one of the top three (Xiaomi was third) to achieve positive year-over-year growth.

Apple's dominance over Samsung last year may be partly due to the way its walled garden captures and keeps younger users on the platform. A Financial Times report, using data from ad tech firm Attain, noted that 34% of U.S. iPhone owners were born after 1996. By contrast, only 10% of Generation Z own Samsung phones.

Moreover, people are content to spend a little more on premium devices in hopes of future-proofing their phones for the long haul. And premium devices? That's where Apple shines brightest. [Nabila Popal, research director of IDC's Worldwide Tracker team, says, "In the second half of 2023, with rapid growth in emerging markets, low-end like Transsion and Xiaomi Android players showed strong growth, but the biggest winner is clearly Apple," he said. [Apple is] not only the only one of the top three to show positive growth every year, but for the first time in its history, it is ranked number one every year. This is despite facing tighter regulations and new competition from Huawei in its largest market, China. Apple's continued success and resilience is largely due to a growing trend of premium devices, which now account for more than 20% of the market, fueled by aggressive trade-in campaigns and interest-free financing plans.

*Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, January 15, 2024

Along with Apple's rise to the top spot, the key points for me are the overall decline in the smartphone market (-3.2%) and Chinese company Transsion's huge year-on-year growth.

As others have noted, growth picked up in the second half of 2023, suggesting the possibility of a market recovery in 2024. The question is whether Samsung can recover and regain its top position.

Samsung Unpacked will be held tomorrow, where the Samsung Galaxy S24 family will be officially revealed for the first time.