April 2, 2023 Jastra Kranjec.
The world’s two largest smartphone producers, Apple and Samsung, have been battling for their share in the global smartphone market for over a decade. Although both brands, headquartered in California and South Korea, have the highest-quality devices in the market and count their users in billions, Samsung has topped Apple in device shipments over the past five years.
According to data presented by CasinosEnLigne.com, Samsung shipped 1.38 billion smartphones in the past five years or 30% more than Apple.
Apple cuts Annual Shipment Difference, but the gap remains wide
Apple and Samsung are in a corporate battle that started in 2010 when the South Korean tech giant, then an Apple supplier, released an iPhone-like product through its Galaxy lineup. Since then, the two brands have been competing for the title of the world’s largest smartphone vendor, with each holding over 25% market share. Still, the difference in annual shipments over the past five years is huge, with Samsung as the absolute leader.
According to Statista and IDC data, in 2018, one of the best years for Samsung Galaxy line sales, the South Korean giant shipped 292.3 million smartphones worldwide. Apple sold 208 million iPhones that year or 84.3 million less than Samsung. In 2019, the gap became even bigger, with Samsung shipping 295 million of its smartphones, or 104.4 million more than Apple.
Although Apple significantly reduced the annual unit shipment difference, the gap remained wide. Statistics show the US tech giant shipped 206.1 million of its iPhones in 2020, or 59.9 million less than Samsung the same year. In 2021, the total shipment difference dropped to 37.1 million. Although both vendors saw their smartphone sales drop in 2022, Samsung still shipped 32.9 million more devices than Apple, the smallest difference in five years.
Android Market Share increased Year-Over-Year, IOS down by 1.5%
The StatCounter data showed Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide, controlling the mobile OS market with a 72.2% share in February, up from 70.94% in the same month a year ago. In some countries, like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Vietnam, Android holds up to 85% of the market. On the other hand, iOS accounts for around 27.1% of the mobile operating system market, or 1.5% less than in February last year.
Analyzed by vendors, iPhone is the number one brand with a 27.1% market share that month. Samsung closely follows, with a 26.7% share in February. Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo follow, with 12.29%, 6.86%, and 5.3% shares, respectively.
