CANALYS: Apple has dethroned Samsung as the best-selling smartphone manufacturer once again


To be fair, the new iPhone 14 Pro series is intriguing as it introduced new things unseen from previous iPhones.

iPhone 14 Pro Max. Courtesy of Apple

It’s that time of the year again, and Canalys has released its report about the top smartphone manufacturers for 2021 and 2022, and for the last months, Apple has secured its top spot versus its long-time rival, Samsung.

In both Q4 2021 and 2022, the report above shows Apple trumping Samsung and has accumulated 23% and 25% of the smartphone market share respectively while Samsung is also not that far behind at 19% and 20%.

This was a massive jump for Apple, from 18% in Q3 and it also resulted in the company surpassing Samsung, which was the former leading company, to the number one spot.

On third place is Xiaomi which had a small decline in sales, from 13% to just 11% in Q4. Oppo, while in fourth place, gained an additional 1% in the quarter. Vivo’s shares remained the same. What’s not seen here are companies like Honor and OnePlus, although OnePlus’ shares could be accounted to Oppo’s.

Q4 was the worst annual performance for manufacturers in the decade and they have struggled to gain a higher foothold because there is a lesser need to upgrade smartphones constantly. There was lower demand even for budget and midrange smartphones despite heavy promotional incentives and holiday sales. Sales performance in Q4 2022 is slightly better, showing signs for greater demand and lower supply issues.

Canalysts also forecasts that manufacturers will continue to struggle this year, and these numbers would only increase barely or remain constant, however, there is a large growth potential in Southeast Asia.

You could read the entire report here