IDC: Global smartphone shipments to reach 1.17 billion units in 2023, down 3.2% year-on-year

2023 is a special year. The advancement and application of AI technology, Apple's entry into the XR field, and Huawei's strong return with the Mate60 series are all major events that can shake the entire digital technology circle.

However, the above events can be predicted in advance through the revelations on the Internet, and they are all expected. So the question is, what other major events in 2023 are beyond our expectations?

As we all know, market research organization IDC releases sales reports of major mobile phone brands in the global market every year. Before the report is released, we cannot predict the results.

It was originally thought that Samsung would still rank first in mobile phone sales in 2023, and the rest of the ranking would still be divided between Apple and domestic manufacturers. As a result, Apple actually surpassed Samsung and directly won the throne of the world's number one sales.

It took Apple 12 years to become the leading smartphone brand

According to data released by IDC, global smartphone shipments in 2023 will drop by 3.2% year-on-year to 1.17 billion units. Among them, Apple's mobile phone sales in 2023 will be 234.6 million units, accounting for 20.1% of the global mobile phone market share, ranking first. Since 2011, Samsung has won the first place in the global mobile phone market for 12 consecutive years. However, in 2023, Samsung fell from the altar for the first time and was overtaken by Apple.

IDC data shows that Samsung's mobile phone sales in 2023 will be 226.6 million units, accounting for 19.4% of the global mobile phone market share.

Compared with last year, mobile phone shipments fell 13.6% year-on-year. However, Apple, its old rival, performed very well in 2023. Compared with last year, Apple's mobile phone shipments increased by 3.7% year-on-year.

From this data, it can be seen that in 2023, only Apple and Transsion's mobile phone shipments showed a reverse growth trend, while other mobile phone brands all showed negative growth.

It is worth mentioning that although Samsung ranks second, it is the manufacturer with the most serious decline in mobile phone shipments, down 13.6% year-on-year compared with last year.

Samsung's mobile phone sales have been surpassed by Apple. There are different opinions on this matter online. Some say it is because Samsung has lost the Chinese market, some say it is because Samsung lacks technological innovation, and some say Samsung has focused on mid-range phones and ignored the low-end market.

I think the above statements are not correct, but they are not completely wrong. For example, Samsung's share of the Chinese mobile phone market reached 18.7% in 2013, ranking first in the country. In 2014, Samsung ranked second with a market share of 12.1%.

With the rise of domestic mobile phones, Samsung's ranking in the domestic mobile phone market has fallen out of the top 5 since 2015. After that, due to the explosion of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 series, Samsung's share of the domestic mobile phone market has fallen to less than 1%.

However, Samsung still maintains its first place in the global smartphone market, so it is not true that Samsung’s loss of the domestic market led to Apple’s overtaking of Samsung.

The author believes that the reasons why Samsung was overtaken by Apple can actually be divided into the following three points:

The global economic downturn has led to a decline in consumer demand for replacement phones;

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are too competitive. Samsung phones have been surpassed by domestic mobile phones in some aspects.

The smartphone market has become saturated and it is difficult to have greater innovation.

Simply put, the reason why Samsung's mobile phone market share has declined sharply is that compared with domestic mobile phones, Samsung's mobile phones cannot open up much gap in hardware and software levels.

In addition, domestic mobile phones have more advantages in pricing than Samsung phones, and are even ahead of Samsung in some aspects, such as generative AI assistants (Blue Heart Xiao V), imaging system experience, etc. All of the above reasons have led to Samsung's share in the global mobile phone market being further squeezed.

Apple is proud of itself, and the secret behind its success

In the context of the sluggish global mobile phone market, Apple has still achieved reverse growth. The reasons behind this are not difficult to understand.

First of all, iPhone users are very loyal to the Apple brand. We all know that with the excellent software ecosystem of iOS and the deep integration of Apple's own hardware and software, "smooth and no lag" has become the label of the iPhone.

Apple is a technology company that likes to do subtraction, so the system interaction and the use of various iOS functions are easier to use than the Android system.

Moreover, the iOS ecosystem is relatively closed, and once you get used to it, it is difficult to get rid of it. Therefore, iPhone users have a high degree of stickiness to the Apple brand. Coupled with the high-end product image of Apple mobile phones and the good reputation of the previous generations of iPhones in the market, Apple has gained a huge user base.

Earlier, it was reported that Apple broke through the 1 billion active device threshold for the first time in 2016, and the number reached 1.3 billion in 2018. If this data is extrapolated, there are now at least 100 million iPhone users worldwide.

Coupled with the smooth and non-stuttering nature of iOS, Apple has many loyal users, who can also be understood as potential users who want to change their phones.

In order to stimulate the demand for replacement of this part of potential users, Apple only did two things. The first thing was to give more promotions to the iPhone. Taking this year’s iPhone 15 series as an example, these four models were released less than 5 months ago, and Apple launched promotions on major e-commerce platforms. Even at the beginning of 2024, the official launched a real New Year’s promotion for the iPhone 15 series.

Another example is Apple's official discount event for old iPhones. In the past, Apple's official recycling prices for old phones were generally lower than those on third-party recycling platforms. Now, even if you have not purchased Apple Care+ and are not eligible for annual renewal, you can still exchange your phone for a new one at a 50% discount, provided that your phone is a previous generation model.

The second thing Apple did was to create marketing gimmicks. For example, before the release of the iPhone 14 series, netizens had already combined the leaked information to understand that the iPhone 14 series is another generation of Apple squeezing toothpaste, with conventional hardware upgrades, and the unchanging notch screen has become a perforated screen.

As a result, on the day of the press conference, Apple used a cool promotional video of the Smart Island to make this ordinary hole come alive, and users can even interact with it.

It is this promotional video that has attracted many consumers. In order to experience the "Spiritual Island", they are willing to pay for it.

Like this year's iPhone 15 series, the Smart Island and 48-megapixel main camera of the previous generation Pro models are directly transferred to the mass-produced models iPhone 15/15 Plus, and the entire iPhone 15 series is equipped with a Type-C interface as standard.

In addition, this year's two iPhone 15 models also use a new color-melting glass process. Without changing the design of the iPhone's back panel, the color scheme is very different from previous generations, making it possible to tell at a glance that this is an iPhone 15.

As the flagship model, the iPhone 15 Pro series has put in a lot of effort in product marketing.

For example, the world's first 3nm A17 Pro chip, the ability to play AAA games on a PC on a mobile phone, the iPhone 15 Pro series middle frame made of lighter and harder titanium, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max's exclusive 5x periscope telephoto, etc. Apple has a firm grasp on consumers' demand for phone replacement.

The most important thing is that Apple will now take the initiative to lower its profile. Less than two months after the release of the iPhone 15 series, you can see iPhone 15 series models participating in the Double Eleven discount activities on various e-commerce platforms. Therefore, it is natural that Apple will become the number one mobile phone brand in 2023.

Huawei, the supporter of Apple's dream of becoming the world's largest smartphone brand

However, before this, the global smart phone market was a three-way competition. Looking back at IDC's data from previous years, it is not difficult to find that Apple, which has been ranked second for many years, has been overtaken by Huawei and is approaching the first Samsung.

In 2019, among the top five manufacturers in terms of mobile phone shipments, only Apple experienced negative growth, with an overall decline of 8.5%. However, Huawei, ranked second, had the most horrific growth, with an overall increase of 16.8%.

It is important to note that this is the result Huawei achieved after experiencing the second round of US sanctions. It is not difficult to see from this that Huawei's high-end models have been recognized by consumers around the world.

Even in 2020, Huawei was still able to withstand the pressure of US sanctions and take the third place in the global mobile phone market share. However, starting from 2021, Huawei faded out of the top five in global mobile phone shipments. This means that Huawei's previous mobile phone market share was divided up by other manufacturers.

According to this logic, if Huawei had not been sanctioned at that time, Apple might not have been the first in the global mobile phone market share in 2023. In other words, if Huawei had not given up its mobile phone market share and Samsung had not made progress, Huawei would most likely have been the first in the mobile phone market in 2023.

The reason why Apple was able to snatch the first place from Samsung this time is nothing more than meeting the three conditions of "time, place and people". The rise of domestic manufacturers, Huawei giving up market share, Samsung squeezing the toothpaste, and then Apple's wave of gimmick marketing and promotional activities finally made Apple the number one mobile phone brand in 2023.

From Pacific Technology