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Samsung vs Apple: The Epic Battle for Smartphone Supremacy in 2023
Market research firm TrendForce published the latest report on their analysis. The agency disclosed that after global smartphone production dropped by nearly 20% year-on-year in the first quarter, production continued to decline by about 6.6% in the second quarter, to 270 million units.
In particular, the global smartphone production in the first half of 2023 was 520 million units, a 13.3% decline compared to the same period last year. Both individual quarters and the first half of the year in total set a ten-year low.
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TrendForce analysts pointed out that there are three reasons for the sluggish production performance:
- First, the lifting of epidemic prevention restrictions did not drive demand as expected;
- Secondly, the demographic dividend effect of the emerging Indian market has not effectively exerted its advantages;
- Thirdly, in 2022, brands will be deeply affected by excessive channel inventory. It was originally expected that as inventory is reduced, brands will return to production levels.
However, now affected by economic weakness, people’s consumption willingness is more conservative, resulting in poor production performance in the first half of the year. expected.
Second Quarter Market
In the second quarter, Samsung still topped the list, with Q2 output reaching 53.9 million units, a decrease of 12.4% from the previous quarter. The same period coincided with the replacement of old and new Apple models, with output of 42 million units, a decrease of 21.2% from the previous quarter.
Adding to this, the most obvious change in the smartphone market was Transsion (including TECNO, Infinix, and itel). Transsion surpassed vivo and entered fifth place in the world for the first time. Its output increased by more than 70% month-on-month to 25.1 million units.
Production
In addition to Samsung and Apple, Xiaomi (including Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO) produced approximately 35 million units in the second quarter, an increase of 32.1% from the previous quarter.
OPPO (realme, and OnePlus included) produced about 33.6 million units in the second quarter, an increase of 25.4% from the previous quarter. Q3 is expected to have a growth rate of about 10-15%, closely following Xiaomi.
Samsung remained the king in the Q2 2024 market, but Apple and Xiaomi are getting closer. IDC market research data shows that Samsung led the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter of the year and Chinese brands scored rapid growth.
According to IDC, Samsung sold 53.9 million devices in the second quarter. The company occupied an 18.9% market share internationally. The company has slightly improved its sales share up from 53.5 million units in the same period last year.
The data suggests that Apple ranked second in terms of global volume sales. The iPhone maker shipped 45.2 million devices in Q2, 2024. It captured a market share of 15.8%, a modest increase from 44.5 million shipments in the second quarter of last year.
Third comes Xiaomi. The Chinese brand saw massive growth in sales year over year. It had sold 42.3 million smartphones in the second quarter alone. It’s a big jump from 33.2 million units shipped in Q2 2023, becoming a potential threat to Apple and Samsung.
Apart from this, Vivo also recorded significant growth in the global market. The company’s year-over-year growth in Q2 was 21.9%, with sales listing 25.9 million units with a market share of 9.1%. The growth percentage shows that aggressive marketing and boasting competitive specs into devices is paying off.
Samsung, Apple’s game isn’t over…
Last week, Samsung launched its new foldable phones, releasing on July 24, 2024. Apple, on the other hand, is expected to launch new flagship iPhones in September. It means, Samsung will enjoy the third quarter as well. The fourth quarter might be of Apple as iPhone sales would sharply grow in the global market given the new lineup release.
Samsung is now preparing to unveil new FE products later this year, followed by the S25 series in early next year. Chinese brands are expected to debut their latest flagships in the last quarter of this year, while Google Pixel phones are also coming in August.
Samsung today announced provisional sales and profit results for the second quarter. Samsung formally announced the provisional/predicted sales and operating profit, suggesting a massive profit boom in Q2, 2024 given the AI memory semiconductor rise.
In Q2, 2024, Samsung sales provisionally increased by 2.89% and operating profit by 57.34% compared to the previous quarter thanks to AI boom. Besides, the sales climbed by 23.31% and operating profit by 1,452.24% compared to the same period last year.
The company expects sales of 74 trillion won and operating profit of 10.4 trillion won on a consolidated basis. While these results are not final, there won’t be much change in the final result when it comes out. Samsung had a pretty profitable period in the second quarter.
Samsung in Q2
- Consolidated Sales: Approximately 74 trillion Korean won
- Consolidated Operating Profit: Approximately 10.4 trillion Korean won
The Korean tech giant is currently facing yield issues in its second-generation 3nm process. The flagship Exynos processor is unlikely to be commercialized this year. It would lead the Mobile business to face additional burdens due to rising prices of Snapdragon chipsets.
Meanwhile, Samsung is focussing on HBM (high bandwidth memory) semiconductors. HBM is a key player in artificial intelligence servers and data centers. The booming AI market will directly benefit Samsung’s semiconductor business.
Samsung ranked first in market share in the global smartphone market in Q3, 2023. TrendForce report says that Samsung led the global Q3 smartphone market, recording a market share of 19.5%.
Overall production in the third quarter increased by 11.5% compared to the previous quarter to 60.1 million units. During the same period, Apple’s production increased by 17.9% to 49.5 million, thanks to iPhone 15.
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Third place was taken by Xiaomi (13.9%), followed by Oppo (12.6%) and Transion (8.6%). 6th place is Vivo (8%). Meanwhile, global smartphone production reached 308 million units, a 13% increase compared to the previous quarter and a 6.4% increase from the previous year.
Huawei’s re-entry into the flagship smartphone market targeting Apple has had a significant impact in China. Huawei is aiming to expand its high-end flagship series, focusing on the Chinese domestic market next year, so Apple “We plan to attack directly”.
// Source