Samsung regains top spot in global smartphone market in Q1 2023

Samsung has once again regained its position as the top smartphone vendor globally in the first quarter of this year, slightly edging out its main competitor, Apple. This is according to a report released by market tracker Canalys on Wednesday.

During the first quarter of this year, Samsung held a market share of 22%, while Apple followed closely behind with a 21% share. Samsung was the only leading vendor to achieve a quarterly jump during this period.

In the last quarter of 2020, Samsung lost the top spot to Apple following the launch of the iPhone 14 series. During that period, Apple made up 25% of global smartphone sales, while Samsung took 18%.

Samsung is expected to see an increase in sales following the release of its latest flagship Galaxy S23 series, which was rolled out in some 130 countries starting from February this year.

Compared to the previous S22 series, sales of the S23 series flagship smartphone increased by about 70% in some regions on a year-on-year basis, beating earlier expectations, according to the company. The phone sales exceeded the one million mark in Korea alone earlier this month.

The success of the Galaxy S23 Ultra model and its innovative 200-megapixel camera sensor is credited with having “captured the hearts of consumers,” according to an anonymous industry source who spoke with The Korea Herald.

However, despite Samsung’s gains, the market share gap between the company and Apple was just 1% in the first quarter of 2021, down from 6% a year ago. This could endanger Samsung’s dominant market position.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi remained the third-largest smartphone vendor with an 11% market share over the cited period. Two other Chinese smartphone makers, Oppo and Vivo, accounted for 10% and 8% respectively, as they continue to gain ground in the Asia-Pacific region and their home market.

According to Canalys, the overall global smartphone market saw a fifth consecutive quarterly loss, falling by 12% on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter. The market is yet to recover despite some limited improvements in major unfavorable macro factors.

Canalys analyst Toby Zhu commented that it is still too early to predict the recovery of overall consumer demand. However, the sell-in volume of the global smartphone market is expected to improve due to the reduction in inventories in the next few quarters.

He added that smartphone sales are slowing as companies are increasingly focusing on production innovation with quality, not quantity, being their strategic priority.

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