Market analytics firm Canalys recently released its Worldwide Smartphone Shipments report for the first quarter of 2023.
Sad news, the report shows that the smartphone market continues to drop as the Q1 2023 numbers are 13% lower compared to last year’s, and continues the negative trend that we’ve been seeing in the past quarters. Inventory build-up and low demand are the key factors said to be behind this trend.
For Q1 2023, Samsung shipped the most smartphones by owning 22% of the market with 60.3 million units — all thanks to their revamped Galaxy S flagship and budget-friendly Galaxy A series.
Samsung stole the top spot from Apple, which took 21% of the market at 58 million iPhones shipped. Canalys said that Apple can contribute its success to the strong demand for the iPhone 14 Pro series. In fact, they were the only brand to achieve positive annual growth on the list.
Coming in at number three we have Xiaomi with a distant 11% of the market share shipping 30.5 million units. The Chinese company suffered the largest YoY decline of -22%.
Sister companies OPPO (with OnePlus) and vivo then took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, shipping 26.6 million (10%) and 20.9 million (10%) units from January to March of 2023.
Canalys expects the market will gain momentum in the second half of 2023 as “inventories reach healthier levels.”
Source: Canalys