Apple pips Samsung in global smartphone sales in 2023

iPhone accounted for 20% of the global market with close to 235m shipments last year, research shows

Apple benefited from aggressive offers that have enticed a shift toward premium devices

Apple's iPhone dethroned Samsung devices to become the best-selling smartphone over the course of 2023, the first time South Korea’s largest company has lost the top spot since 2010. 

The other Top 5 slots were all Chinese-owned firms. 

The iPhone accounted for 20% of the global market with close to 235m shipments last year, research firm IDC estimates. 

Samsung, whose shipments fell to 226.6m, came in second, ahead of Chinese device makers Xiaomi, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Transsion, preliminary data from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showed.

While Apple has dominated Christmas sales in recent years, its surge ahead of Samsung over a full year is unprecedented and suggests Apple is weathering an industrywide slump better than rivals.

Apple benefited from aggressive offers that have enticed a shift toward premium devices. 

It managed to expand shipments in 2023 despite a lukewarm reception late in the year for the iPhone 15 in China — its biggest international market — where Huawei’s growing popularity and a widening ban on government use is depressing sales. 

"While we saw some strong growth from low-end Android players like Transsion and Xiaomi in the second half of 2023, stemming from rapid growth in emerging markets, the biggest winner is clearly Apple,” IDC research director Nabila Popal said. 

“All this despite facing increased regulatory challenges and renewed competition from Huawei in China, its largest market," she said. 

The shift up the smartphone price chain has been driven in part by attractive trade-in offers and interest-free financing, IDC said. 

Apple was the only player in the global top three to register growth, but it has not been immune to the wider decline. 

Sales in China of the latest-generation iPhone are significantly down from its predecessor, with some analyst expecting those drops to deepen. 

• Bloomberg