Apple lost the title of the world’s best phone brand. The tech giant’s device sales have been declining for the past few months. That’s why Tim Cook’s company could not retain the top position this year like last year. On the other hand, due to Apple’s declining sales, the rival brand Samsung (Samsung) has been able to regain the first place it lost.
According to a latest report by global market intelligence firm ‘International Data Corporation’ (IDC), Apple’s global smartphone shipments declined during the first quarter of 2024 i.e. between January and March. In contrast, Samsung managed to reclaim the crown of being the ‘world’s leading phone supplier’ in the first quarter of 2024.
In the report, the Tim Cook-led tech giant claimed two main reasons for the drop in shipments.
- First, competition among Android smartphone manufacturers is fierce. As a result, companies like Samsung and Xiaomi are far ahead with more market share. As a result, other brands have sprung up to compete with them. In such a situation, iOS device maker Apple is falling victim to the battle among Android phone makers.
- Second, Apple has recently been facing tremendous challenges in device shipments and sales in China, the world’s largest smartphone market. Competition has increased, largely due to the resurgence of Huawei in China. In this case, to increase the sales of domestic brand products, government restrictions have been imposed on devices manufactured by foreign companies. Because of this, Apple’s sales in China have decreased a lot.
Incidentally, Ryan Reith, vice president of IDC’s Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers group, believes that Samsung has been able to beat Apple to the top spot due to its ability to understand the changing dynamics of the smartphone market. As an example, he mentioned the Galaxy S24 flagship series launched earlier this year. The phones of this lineup have been very popular post-launch due to the fact that they are brought in keeping in mind the needs of the customers. It even sold 8% more than the predecessor Galaxy S23 series. Due to which Samsung managed to beat Apple by gaining 20.8% market share.
Ryan Reith also claimed that both Apple and Samsung brands will dominate the high-end smartphone market throughout the year. And Huawei, along with Xiaomi, Transition, Oppo, OnePlus and Vivo will continue to fight each other for the third, fourth and fifth places.
