Global Smartphone Shipments Surge 7.8% Year-over-Year in Q1 2024: IDC Report

The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reported a 7.8% increase in global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 289.4 million units. This growth, marking the third consecutive quarter of shipment increases, indicates a strong recovery despite ongoing economic difficulties in various regions.

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Samsung took the lead in Q1 2024 by 60.1 million units to keep 20.8% of the market. Although the company’s shipments fell slightly year-over-year, it increased its share of the market. Apple took second place with shipments of 50.1 million units, accounting for 17.3% of the market, despite a 9.6-percent reduction in shipments. The company in third place, Xiaomi with 40.8 million units grew by as much as 33.8% compared to Q1 2023. Fourth Transsion and fifth OPPO with a special change of supply from the previous year.

Ryan Reith, IDC’s group vice president, highlighted the ongoing recovery in the smartphone market, especially among major brands like Samsung. While Apple and Samsung are expected to dominate the high-end market, the resurgence of HUAWEI in China and advancements from other companies like Xiaomi, Transsion, OPPO/OnePlus, and vivo could lead them to explore new growth opportunities.

Reith sees the future dominated by the market consolidation of major players during the growing recovery stage, with smaller brands inevitably struggling to establish a position in the conditions created. According to Nabila Popal, research director of IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team, two noticeable trends have already become visible: an increasing value of a device led by higher average selling prices resulting from consumers’ preference for premium, longer-used products and a change in power balance within the top 5 companies. The development seems likely to persist and even accelerate with the adaptation of companies’ strategies to the early recovery conditions, with Popal stressing that the described trends are there to stay as long as the market is in the process.

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