Samsung Seemingly Ships Fewer Phones Than Apple In 2024 As Foldable Bet Falters

Samsung has held the crown of the world’s largest smartphone maker for years, but Apple has been challenging that for a while and, in 2024, the iPhone seemingly dethroned the largest Android maker.

In 2023, Apple reportedly beat Samsung in smartphone shipments by just a hair, and that’s now repeating in 2024. The two brands went back and forth through the year in terms of market share, but ultimately, Apple took the crown.

That’s according to Canalys and IDC at least, while Counterpoint Research says Samsung still beat Apple by around 1%.

The trend is clear, though, that Apple is taking over Samsung’s top spot. Meanwhile, Xiaomi spent 2024 locking in its third-place position with around 13.6% market share and nearly 170 million devices shipped. Transsion, in fourth place (including brands such as Tecno), shipped around 107 million units while Oppo (including OnePlus) was just shy of 105 million. Apple and Samsung were the only top five brands that shrunk in 2024, but still benefitted from an overall growing smartphone market.

IDC brings out that foldables, Samsung’s big bet over the past few years, hasn’t been helping matters as there’s been “decreased demand for foldables in the market.” It’s also noted that consumer interest is “flat” and that AI is being prioritized over foldable R&D. That lines up with previous details we’ve heard from Samsung, as the company is reportedly lessening plans for 2025 foldables.