According to a new analytical report this morning, the US smartphone shipments declined 8% YoY in Q1 2024. This was primarily due to stronger Q1 2023 shipments following COVID-19-related factory closures that pushed Apple shipments from Q4 2022 into Q1 of last year. The sub-$300 segment also saw continued declines due to weakness in the prepaid market, with carriers pushing for 5G smartphone SKUs, causing some OEMs to pull away from the market.

After all the doom and gloom being reported by many in the media, it's great to see that the iPhone maintained a healthy market share of 52% in the quarter as sub-$300 Android shipments saw declines. Samsung came in at 32% market share as noted in the Chart below.

(Click on Chart to Enlarge)

On Android shipments, Senior Analyst Maurice Klaehne said, “Overall Android shipments decreased YoY, with the market’s low end continuing to see consolidation and decreasing new product launches due to LTE devices being phased out in favor of 5G models in carrier channels.

Counterpoint's Associate Director Hanish Bhatia: "There will be seasonal growth drivers in Q3 and Q4 with the holidays and new product launches, especially if we see a strong push for GenAI features in new iPhones. Looking ahead, 2024 may remain a challenging year for OEMs given how upgrade rates have continued to remain low against the backdrop of macroeconomic headwinds triggered by high interest rates.”

Counterpoint introduces a new 'Value' Category for the Indian Smartphone Market

The US GDP per capita was $77,400 in 2022 versus the GDP per capita in India being $8,379 (US Dollars).  With that in mind, it's easy to see why super cheap smartphones dominate the Indian market.

Interestingly Countepoint developed a new way to capture smartphone sales by dividing shipments in India into two distinct groups: Volume and Value. At present, Apple is nowhere to be found on the Volume Chart yet came in second in the Value Chart as presented in the Counterpoint chart below.

(Click on Chart to Enlarge)

In the "premium smartphone space" Apple won hands down in both volume and value in that category driven by the latest iPhone 15 series, especially in offline channels.” The report didn't quantify the price range for Premium smartphone.

In the Volume-Only group, Vivo led the Indian market followed by Xiaomi, Samsung, oppo and realme. Counterpoint