Apple overtakes Samsung as the most popular smartphone brand: GlobalStats report

Apple has beaten Samsung hands down in terms of mobile phone users worldwide, according to a report by Global Stats. The Korean tech giant has been going toe-to-toe with the Cupertino-based tech behemoth for several years now. Apple primarily targets premium customers, while Samsung caters even to budget-conscious buyers.

Apple has been at the forefront of the premium smartphone market for quite some time now. Unsurprisingly, the company dominated the list of best-selling smartphones in 2022. Eight out of every ten smartphones sold worldwide were iPhones, according to a Counterpoint report. A separate report by Atlast VPN suggests Samsung is lagging behind Apple in the smartphone users department.

Apple captures more of Samsung's market share

The report indicates Apple surpassed Samsung by gaining more popularity among smartphone users than the Korean brand in the first three months of this year. Here's how the two tech firms fared for the Q1 of 2023. Samsung has been on a launch spree this year, unlike Apple. The company unveiled the highly anticipated Galaxy S23 series and a myriad of Galaxy A-series smartphones.

Despite the hype surrounding its new Galaxy S-series phones, Samsung failed to outperform Apple as the most popular smartphone brand. According to the Global Stats report, Samsung had the highest market share in the smartphone segment last year. Much to its chagrin, the gap between the Korean firm and its arch-rival Apple has been narrowing down in the past six months.

In October, the Cupertino-based tech giant began to dethrone Samsung as the most popular smartphone brand. To make things worse, Samsung could reportedly lose some business opportunities from Apple next year. It is worth noting that Samsung Electronics makes a wide range of components such as OLED panels and memory chips for iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch.

Apple could collaborate with BOE or other Chinese screen panel makers for OLED panels in 2024 to reduce its dependency on Samsung. To recap, Apple's iPhone 14 series attracted a considerable number of buyers. The Counterpoint report suggests the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max were the most popular smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2022. Now, it looks like the trend has continued this year as well, with iPhone taking the top spot in the list of most popular smartphones.

Market share worldwide

Apple's market share worldwide in January 2023 was 27.6 per cent. Samsung, on the other hand, had a market share of 27.09 per cent. Notably, both brands saw a slight dip in their respective market share in February 2023.

Samsung launched its Galaxy S23 series trio during the Unpacked event on February 1. Moreover, the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra were available for purchase in different markets in the same month.

Samsung's greatest offering failed to beat Apple even after it went up for sale worldwide. In fact, Samsung recently won South Korea's Most Admired Company title for the 12th consecutive year. However, this did not help the company boost the sales of its newly launched flagship smartphones. In the meantime, Apple unveiled a new yellow colour option for its iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models.

The Atlas VPN report suggests there are a whopping 6.84 billion smartphone users in the world, which includes 1.85 billion iPhone users and 1.82 billion Samsung phone users. This is just an estimated number, given that some people might have both iPhone and Samsung phones. The latest data shows Samsung has a 26.74 per cent market share, while Apple sits above it with a market share of 27.11 per cent.

Xiaomi is third on the list with 12.3 per cent of total smartphone users globally. The fourth and fifth spots on the list are occupied by Oppo and Vivo, respectively. Oppo's market share is 6.87 per cent and Vivo has a market share of 5.3 per cent.