By Steven Ferris
Los Angeles, CA (For The Hollywood Times) 1/4/24 – The past year saw hundreds of new phones hitting the stores, including major releases from Apple and Samsung. Despite contradictory reports about the state of the global smartphone market (with some focusing on the continuing downward trend in shipments and others seeing a slow but steady recovery in sales), most analysts agree on one thing – Chinese smartphones keep growing in popularity, especially in Africa, certain Asian countries, and most recently Russia.
However, according to the report, brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, or Oppo still cannot compete with major smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung. In 2023, Apple models were the most preferred smartphones in the world. Roughly 29% of all smartphones used to access web pages had been manufactured by the Cupertino-based company, while 25.2% were Samsung models.
Here are a few key findings from the analysis:
- Between January and December of 2023, the most used smartphone brand around the world was Apple, with an estimated market share of roughly 29%
- Samsung was the second-most popular smartphone brand over the past year, with a 25.2% market share, followed by Xiaomi (11.5%), Oppo (6.1%), Vivo (5.2%), Huawei (4%), Realme (3.7%), and Motorola (2.2%).
- Other smartphone brands used by at least 0.5% of users globally were OnePlus (1.2%), Tecno (1.2%), Infinix (1.1%), Google (0.9%), and LG (0.5%). Nokia, on the other hand, had a market share of 0.4%.
- Apple remained the top smartphone brand in major markets including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, as well as most of Western Europe
- Samsung was the top smartphone brand in South Korea, its home country, but also in Poland, Mexico, Israel, Brazil, and Argentina, among others
- In India, the most populous country in the world since April of last year according to the UN, the most popular smartphone brand of 2023 was the Chinese brand Xiaomi.
- Spain and Greece are the only markets in Europe where Xiaomi beats Apple and Samsung for being the most popular smartphone brand
“Despite the rise of Chinese electronics and smartphone companies, most of the world still prefers iPhones and Galaxies, which are viewed as safer, more reliable, and ultimately, of much higher quality than Chinese tech,” said David Lee, a smartphone market analyst at JohnsPhones. “Market leaders such as Apple keep designing cutting-edge chips, introducing innovative features and using quality materials in manufacturing. Most of all, Chinese brands may be affordable but they lack brand recognition and trust, at least in Western markets.
“This will continue in 2024 (and beyond) since this year’s top-rated releases were once again models by Apple, Samsung, and Google – iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Google Pixel 8 Pro.”
