Canalys data shows that the annual shipment of global smartphones in 2023 will be 1.14 billion units, a decline of 4% compared with 2022.
Despite the challenges in its core markets, Apple still ranked first for the year for the first time with a 20% market share and 229.2 million units shipped, followed by Samsung with 225.4 million units shipped and a 20% market share to maintain profitability for the year, and Xiaomi consolidated its third position and maintained a 13% market share with 146.4 million units shipped. OPPO and Transsion ranked fourth and fifth, with market shares of 9% and 8%, respectively.
Sanyam Chaurasia, senior analyst at Canalys, said: "The recovery in emerging markets led the market rebound in the second half of the year, pushing the global smartphone market to narrow its decline. Transsion and Xiaomi benefited from the rebound in these mass markets, both achieving impressive year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter. However, mature markets, including Chinese mainland, Europe and North America, are still suffering from weak consumer spending and reduced channel-side investment. Looking ahead to 2024, emerging markets will continue to be a strategic location for most manufacturers to seek growth. ”
Toby Zhu, a senior analyst at Canalys, commented, "In 2024, investing in end-to-end AI at the high-end and expanding shipments at the mid-to-low-end will be the two major strategies that smartphone manufacturers will implement in parallel." AI will gradually move from product-level differentiation to an overall strategy at the operational and corporate levels, involving all smartphone manufacturers. On the other hand, the mass market will become the core range of manufacturers, and the priority of cost performance and product economy will be the core product strategy in the short term. ”