With the onset of a new quarter, analysts of all ranks are vying to sum up the results of the previous one, and Canalys representatives considered it necessary to draw the audience’s attention to the decrease in the growth rate of smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter to 3%. The market has been growing for five consecutive quarters, but the growth rate began to slow down in the third quarter of last year.
Image Source: Apple
Having sunk in the third quarter of 2021, the global smartphone market was able to return to growth only in the fourth quarter of the year before last, and if until the second quarter of 2024 inclusive it increased its growth rate, reaching a peak of 12%, then in the third quarter growth was already limited to 5%, and in the fourth it decreased to 3%. One way or another, approximately 330 million smartphones were shipped to the global market in the fourth quarter. At the end of 2024, smartphone shipments grew by 7% to 1.22 billion units, allowing Apple to surpass Samsung Electronics as the largest smartphone supplier for the second year in a row.
Image source: Canalys
In 2024, according to Canalys analysts, Apple managed to strengthen its position due to success in the markets of India and other countries in Southeast Asia. At the same time, in a number of developed markets, Apple has faced obstacles in the form of high competition and increased service life of smartphones, which do not encourage users to frequently purchase new devices. This year, Apple is also expected to show positive shipment dynamics in the smartphone market, partly due to the spread of Apple Intelligence functions.
Image source: Canalys
Last year, smartphone shipments grew mainly due to mass-segment devices. Xiaomi, Transsion and Vivo showed double-digit percentage increases in shipment volumes. Mid-range models failed to find enough buyers in the markets of countries with growing economies, and in more prosperous countries, buyers were more interested in expensive smartphones. It will be difficult to repeat the dynamics of the smartphone market of last year this year, as Canalys representatives explain. Major manufacturers will focus on flagship models and AI acceleration features. Manufacturers of subsequent echelons will more actively promote more affordable smartphones in certain regions, which will strengthen the geographic segmentation of the market. Even at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, smartphone manufacturers not included in the top five suppliers were able to increase their total market share from 30 to 32%.
Apple ended the year with 23% global market share, but it was down one percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Samsung in second place dropped from 17 to 16%. Xiaomi took third place with a stable 13% of the market. Transsion and Vivo, relatively speaking, shared fourth place with 8% of the market, although for the first it was a loss of positions from last year, and for the second the same percentage point was progress in increasing market share. Even for Apple, last year was not cloudless, because in the first quarter it reduced shipments of smartphones to the Chinese market by 25%, in the third by 6%, and in the second it fell out of the top five largest players in the local smartphone market.