Apple's iPhone Shipments Dropped Worldwide in Calendar Q1-2024 while Xiaomi's shipments grew 33%
With reports earlier this month that Apple's iPhone performance in China was cratering in January and February, it shouldn't shock anyone to learn that Apple's Global iPhone Shipments fell close to 10% in calendar Q1, according to a new IDC report.
Overall, IDC reports that global smartphone shipments increased 7.8% year over year to 289.4 million units in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24). While the industry is not completely out of the woods, as macroeconomic challenges remain in many markets, this marks the third consecutive quarter of shipment growth, a strong indicator that a recovery is well underway.
"As expected, smartphone recovery continues to move forward with market optimism slowly building among the top brands," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. "While Apple managed to capture the top spot at the end of 2023, Samsung successfully reasserted itself as the leading smartphone provider in the first quarter. Apple dropped 9.6% year-over-year and fell the steepest amongst the top 5 OEMs.
While IDC expects these two companies to maintain their hold on the high end of the market, the resurgence of Huawei in China, as well as notable gains from Xiaomi, Transsion, OPPO/OnePlus, and vivo will likely have both OEMs looking for areas to expand and diversify.
As the recovery progresses, we're likely to see the top companies gain share as the smaller brands struggle for positioning."
In Calendar Q1-23, Apple was the only Smartphone OEM to show growth. In Q1 2023, Apple was in second spot. So the headlines today in the media that Apple has lost top spot to Samsung is a false narrative considering that Samsung was in the top spot in Q1-2023.
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