ISLAMABAD: According to statistics released on Sunday by research firm IDC, Apple experienced a nearly 10% decline in smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2024 due to heightened competition from Android smartphone manufacturers vying for dominance.
Between January and March, global smartphone shipments surged by 7.8% to reach 289.4 million units, with Samsung surpassing Apple to claim the top spot with a 20.8% market share.
The significant dip in iPhone sales follows a remarkable quarter where Apple briefly surpassed Samsung as the world’s leading phone maker.
However, with a 17.3% market share, it has now slipped back to second place, particularly as Chinese brands like Huawei expand their market presence.
Xiaomi, a prominent Chinese smartphone manufacturer, secured the third position in the first quarter with a 14.1% market share.
Samsung shipped over 60 million phones during the period, leveraging the launch of its latest flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S24 series, earlier in the year.
Counterpoint, a data source, indicates that within the initial three weeks of the Galaxy S24 series’ release, global smartphone sales saw an 8% uptick compared to the previous year’s Galaxy S23 series.
IDC reported that Apple delivered 50.1 million iPhones in the first quarter, down from 55.4 million units in the same period last year.
Moreover, Apple’s smartphone shipments to China witnessed a 2.1% decline in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year, indicating challenges in its third-largest market due to restrictions imposed by Chinese businesses and government bodies, similar to U.S. government constraints on Chinese apps over security concerns.
As Apple gears up for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, where it will unveil software updates for iPhones, iPads, and other products, investors are closely monitoring the company’s advancements in artificial intelligence, a domain where details have been relatively sparse.
Earlier this year, Microsoft surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, underscoring the evolving landscape of tech dominance.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
