Topping Apple, Samsung is your global smartphone leader for Q1 2024

According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung was the leading smartphone manufacturer globally for the first quarter of 2024 shipping one out of every five phones delivered during the first three months of the year. Samsung's shipments rose 6% on an annual basis but declined 8% compared to last year's Q4. That 20% share beat out the 17% slice of the smartphone pie owned by Apple. 

The news wasn't all bad for Apple. While Apple's shipments declined 13% year-over-year during the first quarter, the iPhone's Average Selling Price (ASP) hit a record for any first quarter thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 15 Pro models. The manufacturer that finished third, just three percentage points behind Apple, was Xiaomi and among the top six, the firm had the strongest year-over-year growth for Q1 2024 at 34%. Overall, Xiaomi was responsible for 14% of the smartphones shipped worldwide from January through March.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth manufacturers listed in the report were Oppo (8% market share), Vivo (7%), and Honor (6%). Overall, the number of smartphone units shipped globally in Q1 2024 was 296.9 million according to Counterpoint, 6% higher than the number shipped during the first quarter of 2023. Revenue attributed to smartphone sales hit a new first quarter record after rising 7% year-over-year.

As we told you earlier in the month, in North America, the iPhone continued to dominate as 52% of the smartphones shipped in the continent from January through March were iPhones. Samsung was next with a 31% share which means that in North America Apple and Samsung combined to account for 83% of smartphone shipments in that market. In Europe, Samsung led Apple in market share during Q1 by a 32% to 25% margin.

In Latin America, Samsung's 31% market share topped the runner-up company by 10 percentage points. The runner up was Motorola (21%) while Apple was tied with Xiaomi for fourth with 6% of that market. In the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Samsung had a leading 22% share of smartphone shipments in Q1 with Tecno next with a 16% market share. Apple was sixth after accounting for only 5% of first-quarter smartphone shipments in the region.

In Asia, neither Samsung nor Apple was the leading brand. In a tightly contested battle, Xiaomi took the top spot during Q1 with a 15% market share followed by three manufacturers at 14% (Vivo, Oppo, and Apple). Samsung's 12% share was good for fifth place while Honor's 8% slice put it in sixth place.