Apple claimed a 17.7 percent share of the market in the second quarter of 2024, an increase from the previous quarter. Apple's long time competitor, Samsung, ranked first with a market share of 18.3 percent. Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the smartphone market Apple has been amongst the top five smartphone vendors in the world since 2009. With the decline of former market leaders Nokia and RIM, Apple and Samsung were able to grow their presence in the market. As a result of political pressure, tariffs and restrictions imposed by the U.S, Chinese manufacturer Huawei has recently dropped off of the top five list in the smartphone market, while Xiaomi, Oppo, and Transsion have gained ground. Coronavirus (COVD-19) pandemic impact on iPhone sales While the long-term impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on sale is difficult to determine, the immediate impact was quickly visible. While large quarterly fluctuations are normal for Apple’s revenue cycle, one must look back to 2017 to find two consecutive quarters in which Apple generated less than 30 billion U.S. dollars in revenue from the iPhone. A less strong performance in the first quarter of 2024, lead by the iPhone 16, gave Apple the second spot in terms of quarterly global unit shipments after Samsung, although strong sales in the fourth quarter of every year is a common occurrence with Apple products.

Apple's iOS continues to hold the largest share of the smartphone operating systems market in the United States, claiming more than half of the market as of March 2024. Apple's share of the U.S. market has risen steadily since early 2012, when it accounted for around 30 percent. This growth is not reflected in all markets, however, with Apple's global share remaining stable year-on-year. Apple growing at home Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple has continued to follow a stunning growth trajectory. Apple became the first U.S. company with a market capitalization exceeding two trillion dollars, just two years on from becoming the first trillion-dollar company. The iPhone, responsible for much of the company’s growth, has cemented its status as the smartphone of choice for many Americans during recent quarters. Google's Android operating system is a close competitor in the U.S. OS market, accounting for around 47 percent of the market as of March 2024. However, Apple commands a far wider lead in the U.S. smartphone manufacturer market, with the Android user base split between various vendors such as Samsung and Motorola. Apple’s popularity across markets Apple has seen success with the iPhone in developed markets across the globe. iPhones accounted for four of the five most-sold handsets in the United Kingdom as of January 2024, and four of the leading five in Germany. Yet, the high price of Apple devices puts Apple at a disadvantage outside of wealthier markets. In Africa, iOS accounted for around 13 percent of the mobile OS market in November 2023, while Android dominated with an 85 percent share.

Samsung held a 20 percent share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2024. Apple followed closely behind, with an overall share of 17 percent.

The changing face of the smartphone market

The make-up of the smartphone market has changed significantly since 2009. Nokia used to lead the industry with almost 50 percent of the smartphone market share in 2007, and before the arrival of the iPhone, it was hard for consumers to imagine Nokia becoming a market outsider.

Huawei's rise and fall have had a significant impact on the face of the market. Huawei consistently challenged Apple and Samsung for position at the top of the market, even leading it in the second quarter of 2020. Huawei has not appeared in the top five since the second quarter of 2021, largely as a result of trade restrictions.

RIM’s Blackberry devices stand as an example of the effect large-display touchscreen devices had on the market. Blackberry devices sold on a number of strengths, including a well-designed physical QWERTY keyboard and secure enterprise integration. The Blackberry lost its unique value as touchscreen devices improved, leading to a significant decline in revenue. RIM eventually ceased development of the Blackberry in 2016.

Apple held the largest slice of the global smartphone market by shipments during the fourth quarter of 2024, followed by Samsung. Xiaomi has taken a tight grip on the third position, accounting for a market share of 13 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Samsung and Apple smartphone sales Smartphone vendors have been suffering from the events of the past couple of years, including the pandemic and the economic downturn. However, they all appear to be recovering, as shown by the recent increase in shipments. For instance, mostly based on the main line of Galaxy Series, Samsung's smartphone shipments totaled nearly 223.5 million units globally in 2024. Next to Samsung, Apple is a major manufacturer of smartphones worldwide, with the company shipping more than 228 million iPhones worldwide in 2024. Apple’s sales tend to be very cyclical, peaking in the fourth quarter each year, much like in the fourth quarter of 2023, when they took the first spot in terms of units shipped globally with around 80.5 units. Xiaomi in the lead While Apple and Samsung are typically the two major companies challenging for the top spot, Huawei had provided a strong challenge in recent years. Particularly, the Chinese company managed to climb the smartphone market ladder between 2011 and 2024, recording shipments of over 42 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2024. However, strong performances from rivals like Xiaomi and the effects of the U.S. trade ban have since seen Huawei fall outside the list of top five vendors by smartphone shipments.

Apple claimed 21.9 percent of the smartphone market by sales to end users in the fourth quarter of 2021, remaining relatively stable compared with the previous quarter.. Apple has experienced relatively cyclical sales, where sales and market share peak in the fourth quarter each year, coinciding with the release of new iPhone models.

As of March 2024, Apple's market share of smartphones in Japan amounted to approximately 66 percent. In comparison, Apple's market share of smartphones in Papua New Guinea was the lowest in the region, at around 3.6 percent in the same year.

Manufacturers’ market share of smartphone sales in the United States is led by Apple and Samsung, with a market share of 52 percent and 24 percent, respectively, as of the second quarter of 2024. Next to Apple and Samsung are Lenovo and HMD, with respective market shares of 12 and one percent.  Global smartphone market While Apple continues to lead the U.S. smartphone market, it has traditionally lagged behind on the global scale. Samsung has been the leading smartphone vendor worldwide since 2012. However, Samsung’s lead in terms of market share has started to dwindle in recent years, meaning that Apple and other Chinese competitors, such as Xiaomi, vivo, and Huawei, have seen a boost in the smartphone industry. Apple’s traction on the global scale in 2020 comes from its move towards 5G-enabled smartphones, which have doubled sales one year, from 2020 to 2021, alone. Apple is currently the leading vendor in terms of global 5G smartphone shipments. The introduction of 5G throughout the world brings with it the possibility to upheave the smartphone market as we know it. Are U.S. consumers satisfied with Apple and Samsung phones? Apple and Samsung not only lead the smartphone market in the United States in terms of usage, but also in terms of customer satisfaction. The highest ranked smartphone models on the American customer satisfaction index are nearly all Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone models. Furthermore, it appears that U.S. smartphone users are unlikely to change their primarily used smartphone brand anytime soon.

As of 2023, for the first time ever, Apple ranked as the market leader in the global smartphone market with a 20.1 percent share of all shipments. The tech giant retained the top title in 2024, with a share of nearly 19 percent of the global smartphone market. Samsung ranked second, holding 18 percent of the market share. Global smartphone market shareSamsung has seen its popularity steadily increase since it held just a 4.3 percent of the smartphone vendor market at the beginning of 2010. Samsung’s share of the overall mobile phone market, has fluctuated in recent times, dropping to under 20 percent in the most recent year. Apple became smartphone market leader based on shipments in 2023. Apple’s smartphone sales are relatively cyclical and peak in the fourth quarter each year. In the fourth quarter of 2024, 23 percent of all smartphones new smartphones sold were iPhones. The iPhone generated considerable revenue for Apple with sales of the device amounting to over 200 billion U.S. dollars in their 2024 financial year.

As of July 2024, Apple’s iPhone 15 was the most popular smartphone model sold in the United States, accounting for over 17.5 percent of total smartphone sales. The iPhone was the most popular smartphone in the United States at that time, occupying four spots in the top five. Apple and Samsung: two leading competitors Apple and Samsung are the leading smartphone vendors in the United States with a combined market share of almost 80 percent in the second quarter of 2023. The two smartphone vendors dominate the U.S. smartphone market not only in terms of sales, but also when it comes to customer satisfaction: Samsung’s Galaxy line and the Apple iPhones are the highest ranked smartphone models on the American customer satisfaction index. In line with their successes in the United States, Apple and Samsung also lead the global smartphone market, albeit to a lesser degree – the two brands have a combined market share of close to 40 percent. Smartphone penetration the highest in the United States Smartphone sales value in the United States more than doubled in the last decade, making the U.S. one of the major smartphone markets globally. In 2024, over 118 million smartphones were forecast to be sold, with the number of U.S. smartphone users forecast expected to grow in the coming years.

As of March 2025, Apple accounted for around 463 percent of the smartphone market in Hong Kong. This is a considerable decrease compared to the same period last year.Apple in the smartphone market in Hong Kong Apple has been the smartphone market leader in Hong Kong for years, maintaining a market share of well over 40 percent. Whenever new iPhone models were launched, there was almost always a boost in sales. For example, iPhone XR’s launch was the reason for Apple’s peak market share at 60 percent in November 2018. This is particularly interesting in comparison to the neighboring Chinese market, which was led by multiple Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. Back in 2014, Apple held a market share of roughly the same as Xiaomi, and higher than any other Chinese counterparts. Demographics of smartphone users Hong Kong’s smartphone penetration rate was among one of the highest in the world at 96 percent in 2023. Generally, almost everyone aged 15 to 44 years old in Hong Kong has a smartphone, with the smartphone ownership for women slightly higher than males. Around five percent of people in Hong Kong who owned smartphone sometimes owned two or more smartphones.

As of February 2025, Apple's smartphone market share in Asia amounted to approximately 19.73 percent, indicating a slight increase from the previous year. Comparatively, Apple's mobile vendor market share in the region at the beginning of the measured period, 2016, was around 11.83 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Apple retained its majority market share in Canada, accounting for about 60 percent of the country's entire smartphone market. This was a slight increase compared to the previous quarter.

Apple’s iOS mobile operating system held around 23.2 percent of the global smartphone market share in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase from the previous quarter but a marginal decrease from the same quarter in the previous year. This is consistent with Apple's distribution pattern in recent years, claiming a strong share of the market during the fourth quarter of the year and shipping devices at a slower rate throughout the remainder of the year.

Apple's presence in the European smartphone market has steadily grown between 2019 and 2023. At the beginning of the given period, Apple occupied roughly 20 percent of the smartphone market in Europe, with this share growing to 26 percent by 2023.

In the first quarter of 2024, Samsung and Apple were leaders of the European smartphone market. Xiaomi grew from four percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 18 percent in the first quarter of 2024.

Smartphones make up the primary component of the European mobile phone market, with the smartphone penetration rate in Europe being forecast to reach almost 82 percent in 2024.

Leading manufacturers maintain their share. While the total share of the European market held by Samsung and Apple has fluctuated during this time, they still accounted for more than 50 percent of the total market in the first quarter of 2024. The two tech giants alone were responsible for around 40 percent of global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024. Rather than the larger manufacturers, it has been the smaller manufacturers such as LG, ZTE and Lenovo that have seen their share of shipments decline. Since the third quarter of 2020, Huawei’s share has dropped significantly as well.

Huawei stalls Huawei’s previous growth was observed in the increase of total number of handsets shipped to 55.8 million units in the second quarter of 2020. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Huawei’s total number of shipments dropped significantly to 32.3 million, and their European smartphone market share dropped to 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2021.

In the third quarter of 2024, Apple obtained 24 percent of the European smartphone market based on shipments. Historically have Apple's sales been very cyclical, peaking in the fourth quarter each year. Apple's market share achieved for this quarter is slightly lower than their share of smartphone shipments in same quarter of the previous year.

Apple has kept its position as the leading brand in the smartphone market in North America in the first quarter of 2024, shipping more smartphones than any other vendor. Apple held 52 percent of the smartphone market in North America, while Samsung, with the second-largest market share, held 31 percent on the North American smartphone market.

Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in the first quarter of 2025 with a market share of about 71.88 percent. Android's closest rival, Apple's iOS, had a market share of approximately 27.65 percent during the same period. The leading mobile operating systems Both unveiled in 2007, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS have evolved through incremental updates introducing new features and capabilities. The latest version of iOS, iOS 18, was released in September 2024, while the most recent Android iteration, Android 15, was made available in September 2023. A key difference between the two systems concerns hardware - iOS is only available on Apple devices, whereas Android ships with devices from a range of manufacturers such as Samsung, Google and OnePlus. In addition, Apple has had far greater success in bringing its users up to date. As of February 2024, 66 percent of iOS users had iOS 17 installed, while in the same month only 13 percent of Android users ran the latest version. The rise of the smartphone From around 2010, the touchscreen smartphone revolution had a major impact on sales of basic feature phones, as the sales of smartphones increased from 139 million units in 2008 to 1.39 billion units in 2023. In 2020, smartphone sales decreased to 1.38 billion units due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Apple, Samsung, and lately also Xiaomi, were the big winners in this shift towards smartphones, with BlackBerry and Nokia among those unable to capitalize.

Apple lead the mobile device market in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2024, holding around 48.5 percent of the market share. Samsung came in second with just below 32 percent of the UK market share. Both top vendors were well beyond the rest of mobile device vendors in the UK such as Google, which came in third place holding under four percent of the market share, an increase from previous years. Samsung leads the global and European market While Apple is the clear leader in the UK, Samsung holds the edge globally based on devices shipped. Samsung was responsible for 17 percent of global shipments, ahead of the 11 percent accounted for by Apple in 2018. Nearly 19 percent of all mobile phones shipped in Europe in 2019 were Samsung devices, with Apple devices accounting for under ten percent of devices shipped and therefore landing in third place behind Huawei, which shipped over 11 percent of all devices. iPhone 13 on top in the UK The iPhone 13 was the top phone for Apple in the United Kingdom as of January 2022, making up 29 percent of all smartphones sold in the UK. The Samsung Galaxy A12 showed up in fourth place behind Apple products, making up seven percent of all smartphones sold in the UK in January 2022.

As of October 2024, Apple held nearly 12 percent of the mobile phone market in Indonesia, marking a slight increase compared to the previous year. Although it trails behind Android competitors such as Oppo, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Vivo, Apple's market share in the country has steadily grown since 2015. Apple in the Indonesian smartphone market Apple’s smartphone market share in Indonesia is among the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region. Android is the most widely used mobile operating system in Indonesia, holding around seven times the market share of iOS. Apple’s strong brand image is commonly associated with premium products, appealing primarily to a limited segment of consumers in Indonesia. With the average wage among Indonesian employees standing at approximately three million Indonesian rupiah, many consumers prefer more affordable options for smartphones. Smartphone usage in Indonesia Mobile internet penetration has surged among the Indonesian population over the past years. Users spend an average of over six hours per day on their mobile devices for work, study, entertainment, and other activities. Consumer spending on mobile apps has increased by millions of dollars each year, reflecting promising market growth. As smartphone usage, internet adoption, and innovation from leading brands continue to increase, the smartphone market in Indonesia is projected to grow steadily in the coming years.