Smartphone ranking 2023: A new number one after ten years

According to the market research company Canalys, over 200 million Samsung smartphones were sold last year. More precisely, 226.6 million. Even if the figure sounds remarkable, there have been better times. 2021 was a comparatively good year for smartphone sales. Back then, Samsung sold 270 million phones. In 2017, the figure was even higher at 318 million. It is therefore less surprising that Samsung fell to second place for the first time in ten years. Replaced by, who else would it be, the apple from Cupertino. A total of 234.6 million iPhones were sold over the physical and digital counter last year. That is a market share of 20.1 per cent. The figure for Samsung is 19.4 per cent.

In the full year 2023, 1.1 billion smartphones were sold worldwide. After Apple and Samsung, Xiaomi follows in third place with a market share of 12.5 per cent. This is followed by Oppo, including OnePlus, with 8.8 per cent. In fifth place is the rising manufacturer Transsion from China. As recently as 2022, the company with its brands Tecno, Infinix and Itel had a market share of 6 per cent, now it is already 8.1 per cent.

A look back ten years is also exciting and shows how the smartphone market has changed. Samsung has fought its way to first place and replaced Nokia. And while Nokia lost more and more market share over the next few years, Samsung remained at the top. Incidentally, the iPhone 5s and 5c were released in 2013. Samsung launched various models in the S4 series between April and June. New Asha and Lumia models were launched by Nokia in 2013.

What's next in the race? Samsung has just launched its new high-end devices and has a good chance of reclaiming the throne. Transsion could also fight its way to the top. And who knows whether Oppo will settle into a cosy little place in Europe again and continue to rise to the top.

If you want to know what Digitec's market shares look like, you can find the latest figures here. And here too, Apple has overtaken Samsung.